


The Old One

by Marcus_S_Lazarus



Series: A Vampire in the SGC [2]
Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Crossover, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:14:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 49,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23562139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marcus_S_Lazarus/pseuds/Marcus_S_Lazarus
Summary: Investigating the mystery of ‘Doyle’, SG-1 arrive in Los Angeles just in time to witness the resurrection of an ancient nightmare, which leads to the SGC offering Angel and his allies an unconventional new opportunity
Relationships: Samantha "Sam" Carter/Daniel Jackson, Spike/Vala Mal Doran, Winifred "Fred" Burkle/Wesley Wyndam-Pryce
Series: A Vampire in the SGC [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1695847
Comments: 8
Kudos: 8





	1. Coming to Los Angeles

It might have taken over a month to be sure that everything had been neatly resolved, but it had finally been confirmed; the Ori _were_ dead.

With confirmation that even the Doci was unable to make contact with the Ori from his seat in Cori Celestis, and the bloodied body of Adria serving as further evidence that the Ori weren't infallible gods, the Ori's former worshipers had been far more willing to accept the SGC's explanation for the true nature of their 'gods'. It would take a while for them to adjust to the rapid shift that their society had experienced, but Tomin had appeared to be willing to take on a leader role when he returned, recognising the distinction between the message that Origin could have on its own and the Ori's attempts to pervert that image, and he had already started trying to 'convert' some of his crew to share his views and consider his new perspective. Vala's last parting with Tomin had been awkward, but he had accepted her decision to remain in this galaxy with SG-1. He had even spoken with Spike after learning about Vala's new relationship with the vampire, accepting Spike's word that he would take care of her- even if Spike noted that Vala would be taking care of him just as much- and expressing gratitude that Vala had found someone.

As for Spike and Vala, their relationship was still progressing at a tentative rate compared to some of Spike's past liaisons- their half-nude make-out sessions in that closet after the Sangraal was activated was the closest they'd come to actually having sex so far- but Spike was actually rather content with that; considering he mess that he'd made of things with Buffy, the vampire felt that it might do him some good to try and establish a more platonic bond this time around before diving into something deeper.

Speaking of relationships, the recent shift in Sam and Daniel's relationship had actually gone done fairly well with those concerned, despite the obvious potential questions it had raised. The discovery that the SGC's chief scientist and chief archaeologist were now in a relationship had sparked off a few questions and objections from the SGC's supervising officials, but with their reputations taken into account, coupled with the support of Generals O'Neill and Hammond, it had been decided that the two of them could remain on SG-1 for a probationary period at least, to confirm how their relationship affected their judgement (Spike had noted that O'Neill seemed a bit on edge when discussing the topic of the relationship, but had decided not to press it; he'd done it in Sunnydale when he first fought Buffy and Angel after the poof's soul was restored, but there were some things he knew to leave alone now).

With the threat of war now taken off the table and all precautions taken to protect Spike while offworld, the vampire had actually been surprised at how easily he had settled into his new routine. Even his diet had been less of an issue than he'd expected; he had taken to feeding from the SGC infirmary's nearly-expired donated blood, which actually saved the SGC a surprising amount of money by preventing them having to incinerate it as they brought in new stock. It wasn't overly appetising, but it was still better quality than the animal blood he'd been forced to rely on in Sunnydale, and he had an unspoken understanding with his teammates that he could feed in combat so long as he didn't make a habit of it and was certain nobody would need to talk to his victims later.

For the next couple of weeks, however, the entirety of SG-1 was on stand-down, taking a well-deserved time out after the stress of the last few weeks; taking point during their talks with the remaining Ori soldiers on their last two battlecruisers had not been an easy task after they had essentially killed their gods, even with Tomin serving as an intermediary. With the galaxy at peace once again, Teal'c had gone back to Dakara to talk with some of the Jaffa about their plans for the future, particularly regarding their continued alliance with Earth after Spike had single-handedly saved Dakara, while Mitchell was using the leave opportunity to attend his high school reunion.

With nothing else demanding their immediate attention, Sam, Daniel and Vala had agreed to accompany Spike in investigating the card he'd received from the mysterious 'Doyle' shortly after his return to corporeal form. Initially Vala had been the only one coming, but when Spike had told them more about Angel and his business in Los Angeles, Sam and Daniel had both expressed an interest in coming along, Daniel for the chance to learn more about the supernatural and Sam for the opportunity to analyse more examples of magic than what Spike had managed to show them so far. After making arrangements for a couple of weeks off- both scientists wanted time to talk with Angel and his friends, regardless of how long it might take Spike to find his target- the four of them had set off for the city, checking into a hotel and renting a car before setting off to investigate the card.

As the car pulled up outside the address listed on the card, Spike's hopes at finding answers faltered as he took in the sight in front of them; the apartment block he was looking at had clearly not been habited for a while, and when they went to the apartment indicated on the card, all they found was a sparsely furnished basement flat that didn't even have an invitation barrier.

"Why would anyone want you to come here?" Vala asked, looking at Spike in confusion as he walked through the apartment, taking in his surroundings as his three teammates stood in the main living area.

"No idea," Spike said, shaking his head in frustration. "Maybe he wanted to set me up with a place while I carried out his 'missions'?"

"I'm still not clear on how anyone could actually claim to see the future," Vala said. "I mean, even the Ori never claimed that…"

"Well, seeing the future is always a complicated thing to predict; sometimes what you do to avert your vision ends up causing it," Sam said. "We had an experience with that a few years back; Daniel's temporary replacement while he was Ascended, Jonas Quinn, ended up gaining the ability to see the future after a Goa'uld experimented on him, and we theorised that it was allowing him to determine possible futures based on him processing particular patterns, but the visions also resulted in a tumour from the excess brain tissue he was developing."

"Ah," Spike said. "Not a good thing, eh?"

"The tumour would have killed Jonas if he hadn't been operated on in time," Sam confirmed, before she continued her original explanation. "The point is that Jonas was able to change the outcome of at least one vision when he had it in time and was able to warn us about it later, but another vision he had may have actually created the circumstances that led to what he saw; he foresaw me being injured and came to stop me going through the Stargate on our next mission, but I ended up getting hurt while carrying out some repair work back at the base instead."

"And didn't you end up fulfilling a local prophecy about the natives being freed from their god _because_ Jonas's last vision was averted?" Daniel asked, looking thoughtfully at Sam. "I mean, I read about it in one of Jonas's reports when I was catching up on the year I was away…"

"Yeah… I try not to think about that too much," Sam admitted, looking back at Spike. "No offence intended, but even if Merlin confirmed that magic is possible, I don't see how prophecies and the like can be valid on a world that wasn't affected by that experiment he told you about…"

"Something to think about later," Spike said, looking around the room in frustration for a moment before he sighed and shrugged. "Well, this is a dead-end, so we should probably check in with Peaches; if he doesn't know something, he might be able to lead us to who does."

"Uh… 'Peaches'?" Daniel repeated.

"That's… Angel, right?" Sam asked, looking at Spike for confirmation. "The… first vampire with a soul?"

"That's 'im," Spike said, nodding at Sam before he shrugged, ignoring the habitual temptation to insult Angel; he'd moved on from those days. "Anyway, I've got a bar or two I can check out, but I'll need to drop in on my own first; lips'll be looser if we don't have people there wonderin' when I'll be offerin' you all 'round."

"Offering us…?" Daniel said uncertainly.

"Kind of bars I'll be checkin' out could have a tendency to prefer humans as a course rather than guests," Spike said bluntly. "Might risk it if you knew more about this side of the tracks, but you'd be out of your depth and you'd show it; easier to go it alone right now."

His three friends were clearly not entirely satisfied with Spike's explanation, but the grim resignation on their faces at least showed that they were willing to accept his decision in this regard even if they didn't entirely like it.

* * *

  
Walking into the chosen bar, Spike just hoped that his 'disguise' of a tweed suit and Stetson hat held up (And the sooner he got out of this, the better; his new friends might be too polite to actually laugh, but they clearly found his current look far too amusing for his taste). He hadn't been in Los Angeles for some time, and his activities in Sunnydale since getting the chip had generally been comparatively low-key considering that he'd killed most of the vampires who learned about his new allegiances, but he'd made enough of a reputation before arriving in Sunnydale to leave him inclined to take care.

Still, with the new suit, and the obvious bonus that any demons here probably thought he was dead if they knew anything about what he'd been up to back on the Hellmouth, he _thought_ he'd get through this all right…

After taking a couple of drinks and exchanging words with some of his fellow customers, Spike studied the surroundings for a short while before his gaze settled on a somewhat overweight demon with thick arms, long claws, and three large horns on his head. Putting down his latest drink, Spike walked over to sit beside the other demon, taking a moment to let his new companion look at him before he spoke.

"Heard you've got your ear to the ground on recent events," he said at last.

"I know people who know people," the demon replied. "Why'd you ask?"

"Looking for the vamp formerly known as Angelus," Spike said briefly. "Where is he?"

"That vampire?" the demon said, looking at Spike in surprise. "I thought everyone knew-"

"I've been busy last few months; contacts fell to the side," Spike clarified, fixing his gaze on the demon. "Where is he?"

"You don't know where Angel is?" the demon said, smiling slightly at the question. "I'd have thought every vampire knew that; he's running Wolfram & Hart."

Spike blinked.

"Wolfram & Hart?" he repeated. "As in, the law firm that represents most of the evil on this plane?"

"Bingo," the demon confirmed. "He took over after that whole Jasmine thing a few months back; nobody's clear on why, so don't ask…"

Spike wasn't even really paying attention to the demon at this point, his thoughts consumed by the questions that he'd just been presented with.

 _Angel_ working for _Wolfram & Hart_? OK, it wasn't like he'd spent a lot of time with his grandsire since the guy had relocated here, but he knew what the first vampire with a soul was capable of, and taking charge of the bad guys with his soul was _not_ on that list…

On the bright side, he knew that he wasn't dealing with Angelus; Angelus would probably just have slaughtered the firm and moved on if they tried to give him any kind of authority to tie him down somewhere. His grandsire might be the better planner, willing to draw out his time playing with his food to make it really enjoyable, but he'd never enjoyed it when people _made_ him stay somewhere.

The only question was whether Angel had finally gone over the edge, or if he had some kind of weird plan that Spike just didn't know about right now…

His next move already decided on, Spike stood up and walked out of the bar, ignoring the demon's attempt to say something else; whatever Angel's reasons for being at Wolfram & Hart, if anyone knew anything about this 'Doyle' guy, Angel probably either knew something already or knew someone who would.

On the bright side, getting into the building shouldn't be too difficult; Wolfram & Hart might be evil, but they weren't about to just kill people for walking into the office. If he could just get in there and find out if Angel knew anything about 'Doyle', then he and his new team could get back to their vacation…


	2. Vampire Reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Considering certain details, I feel I should go on record to clarify that I'm operating on the assumption that the events of the Buffy/Angel crossover novel 'Monster Island' took place in this world, thus accounting for Angel's team recognising Spike. Also, you'll probably recognise where this takes place in Angel's timeline by the time the chapter concludes, but let me know if you want clarification on anything else

Walking out of the elevator into the main office, Spike was left with further doubts about the accuracy of his source; this place looked _far_ too modern for Angel to be in charge (His grandsire might not live in a crypt, but he wasn't exactly comfortable with modern technology either).

OK, so the guy on the ground floor had confirmed that 'Mr Angel' was in his office on this level, but that really didn't mean much…

"Blondie-Bear?" a familiar voice said from behind him.

"Wha- _Harmony_?" Spike yelled, turning to stare in shock at the blonde vampire sitting behind the reception desk; of everyone he'd expected to recognise in this place, this ex hadn't even made the list. "What the hell are _you_ doing here?"

"I work here," Harmony said, looking pointedly at him. "What the _hell_ are you doing here, Spike… and what's with these guys?"

"Oh, we work with him," Vala said, walking up to Harmony with a smile as she held out a hand. "Vala Mal Doran; I'm dating Spike."

"Dating?" Harmony repeated.

"Uh… like Spike said, we work with him," Daniel said, looking apologetically at the blonde vampire, evidently wanting to get the conversation away from that issue. "I'm Doctor Daniel Jackson, and this is Colonel Samantha Carter; we need to speak to Angel about… well, it's complicated."

"Colonel?" Harmony repeated, looking at Sam in surprise before she turned to Spike. "You're working with-"

"They're not with Captain Cardboard's old crew, Harm… and I'm _not_ talking to you about this, so could you just let us in?" Spike asked, indicating the door just as it opened to reveal Angel, dressed in a dark suit and shirt, staring at him in surprise.

" _Spike_?" he said, looking incredulously at the other vampire. "You're alive?"

"Have been for a bit now… well, as alive as we ever get, anyway," Spike said, smiling slightly at his grandsire before he shrugged and indicated his new associates. "Anyway, me and my team here need to talk with you for a bit 'bout something; can we come in?"

"Uh… OK," Angel said, clearly bemused at Spike's manner even as he stepped aside to let him into the office.

On reflection, Spike supposed that he couldn't blame Angel for being surprised at his attitude; the time was that he and his grandsire would have started exchanging verbal if not physical blows the moment they were in the same room, and here he was, showing up with three strangers and no sign that he wanted a fight.

"OK," he said, looking curiously at the other vampire as Angel closed the door of his office, "first things first; what the hell is Harmony doing as your secretary?"

"That was Wes's idea," Angel said, shaking his head slightly at the memory. "He thought that I'd… appreciate a familiar face."

"You met Harm?" Spike asked.

"She showed up here a few years ago and tried to work with the agency before selling us out to a vampire pyramid scheme," Angel said.

"A vampire pyramid scheme?" Sam repeated, looking at Angel in confusion. "How would that work?"

"One vampire turns two people and captures at least one more person for the group's blood bank," Angel clarified, before looking at Sam in confusion. "And who are you?"

"Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter," Sam replied, smiling politely at Angel. "These are my… teammates, Doctor Daniel Jackson and Vala Mal Doran; Spike's become a member of our team since he joined us."

"Since he… joined you?" Angel said, shaking his head before he looked at Spike. "OK, first things first, how are you still alive? Buffy… she told me that you were destroyed using that amulet…"

"I was," Spike said, shrugging slightly. "Don't know how, but somehow the thing just _absorbed_ me until it spat me out as a ghost after it was delivered to these sods by Captain Cardboard-"

" _Riley_ sent you to the military?" Angel interjected, eyes widening in surprise. "I knew you two didn't get on, but-"

"Actually, Major Finn just intended to send us the amulet because he… thought we might find it useful," Sam interrupted. "I'd explain more, but you'd need to sign some confidentiality forms before you're cleared to hear all that."

"Confidentiality forms?" Angel repeated.

"Trust me, they're serious 'bout their paperwork back at base," Spike said. "I was aware of their secrets for ages before I got my body back, and they _still_ made me sign all of the damn things once I could…"

"Got your body back?" Angel said, shaking his head in confusion as he focused his attention back on Spike. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, when I first got out of the amulet I was in some kind of weird intangible state- spent a lot of time walking through walls and occasionally hitting stuff- but managed to get past that after some whole… _thing_ happened that I can't talk about," Spike said, shrugging as he looked at his grandsire. "Like I said, it's a whole complicated story that they're not authorised to tell you without the right paperwork; all you need to know right now is that they deal with some weird stuff without repeating Cornfed's mistake of thinking they know it all already."

"I… see," Angel said, looking sceptically at Spike for a moment before he shrugged. "Well, you may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I doubt you'd fall for the same stunt twice."

"Twice?" Daniel asked.

"Spike was captured by the Nazis in 1943 with claims of a free virgin blood party," Angel answered, smiling slightly at the memory. "They were going to use him as part of demon-related experiments before the Americans captured the sub he was on and I helped them get it back to port-"

"Sorry to interrupt, but I just have to clarify something," Vala said, looking at Spike in surprise. "You fell for a story like _that_?"

"I had a… very interesting life, but I wasn't always the sharp one of the bunch," Spike said, shrugging awkwardly at Vala before he looked back at Angel. "And talking of interesting lives… where's Buffy?"

"Europe, last I heard," Angel replied, looking probingly at Spike. "And if you're-"

"I'm not goin' after her," Spike interrupted.

"You're not?" Angel said, confusion overshadowed by surprise at that news.

"Had some time to think while I was away, and… well, I like to think I've moved on a bit," Spike said, smiling slightly awkwardly at Angel; a century of habit was rebelling against him even being this open with his grandsire, but at the same time he knew that this had to be said. "You tell anyone else I told you this and I'll deny it 'til the cows come home, but when I was here during that whole thing with the Coalition… you made a good point when we were talkin' after you nearly got flash-fried by that Axtius bloke's trap and you accused me of wantin' to be you."

"I did?" Angel said, looking at his grandchilde in surprise. "And you admit it?"

"Like I said, I'll deny it if you talk 'bout it outside these walls, but you were right; everything I did since bein' turned was done because I wanted to beat you at your own game," Spike said, lost for anything better to say as he looked at his fellow vampire. "These last few months, though… well, I'm not sayin' anything about them until I can, but I'll just tell you know that I've made an interestin' life for myself since I ended up workin' with these guys, and I'm not goin' to mess that up by trying to dig into a past that'll never be what I really wanted."

"Oh," Angel said, lost for anything better to say. "That's… surprisingly mature of you."

"I've been through a lot," Spike said, before his eyes narrowed. "By the way, what are you even doin' here? Last time I checked, Wolfram & Hart represented most of the evil on this plane; what are you doing in _charge_ of it?"

"Actually, I'm just in charge of this branch," Angel explained. "And to answer your question, the original staff were all killed by a particularly powerful demon and we were offered control of the firm after we ended world peace."

"You ended world peace?" Daniel repeated in surprise.

"It was world peace at the cost of slavish loyalty to a former higher power who ate a dozen or so people a day and rendered humanity incapable of doing anything more than worshipping her all the time," Angel clarified as he looked firmly at the archaeologist. "Maybe people weren't being forced into anything, but I wasn't going to let humanity lose free will just because it was easier."

"Ah," Sam said, shaking her head as she looked contemplatively at Angel. "And I thought we dealt with some weird things…"

"For what it's worth, I'm sure we all agree with you," Daniel said.

"And considering that this guy was briefly trusted with the power and knowledge of Merlin, I think we can agree he's a good egg," Spike added.

"Merlin?" Angel said.

"That's… a complicated story," Daniel said, shrugging as he looked at the vampire. "Anyway, we had another reason for being here; we wondered if you knew anything about someone called 'Doyle'?"

"Doyle?" Angel repeated, looking sharply at Daniel. "What do you mean?"

"Few weeks ago, some long-haired git dressed like an urban cowboy showed up, claiming that he wanted to talk to me about my destiny and asking me to meet him in this city," Spike explained. "He claimed to have tried to make me corporeal again with a spell he'd sent me in a cardboard box a while back- stupid sod thought I'd go along with his suggestions because he _claimed_ he'd been tryin' to help me- and wanted me to ditch what I was doing to go along with what he expected."

"And you weren't interested, I take it?" Angel asked, smiling slightly as he looked at the other vampire.

"Aside from the fact that the sod hadn't really _done_ anything to help me, Danny here was currently AWOL after being abducted by a psychopath with religious-related delusions," Spike answered, indicating the archaeologist with a slight smile. "Guy'd been a big help to me while I was settling into the team; I wasn't about to just leave him hanging out there if there was anything I could do to get him back…"

He shrugged. "Point is, now that Danny's back and things are wrapped up- again, something you'll need to fill in those forms to learn more about- I wondered if you had any idea what Doyle was talking about?"

"You said that this… 'Doyle'… wanted you to come to Los Angeles to help people?" Angel asked, looking thoughtfully at Spike.

"Seemed to be leading up to that point," Spike confirmed. "Why?"

"Is this him?" Angel asked, tapping a few quick keys on his computer and turning it around to reveal what seemed to be a staff photograph for a 'Lindsey McDonald'.

"Yeah…" Spike said, suddenly looking suspiciously at Angel. "He works for you?"

"Actually, he worked for Wolfram & Hart about three years ago," Angel replied, smiling slightly at the memory. "He was basically the company's golden boy until he became disillusioned with some of their more ruthless policies; he went off to go find himself, and I never knew what happened to him until he came back a few months ago trying to sabotage my position here. He ended up trying to unleash some kind of monster that the Senior Partners had set up in case I proved too difficult to control a couple of weeks ago, but we defeated him and destroy the protective sigils he was using to shield himself from the Senior Partners; last time I saw him, he had been taken by the Senior Partners to be interrogated about his actions."

"Ah," Spike said, nodding in understanding. "Well… that makes sense."

"So… why would he call himself 'Doyle'?" Sam asked.

"Doyle was the name of a friend of mine back when I started living here," Angel explained, his expression suddenly grim. "He had visions of people in trouble, until he sacrificed himself to save a ship full of half-demons from a group of demon supremacists known as the Scourge; I'm guessing that Lindsey was trying to get you to supplant me as the vampire champion so that the Senior Partners would think they'd made a mistake putting me in charge; from what he said when I found him, he was just angry that I'd basically been handed everything he'd tried so hard to get on his own."

"And he thought seeing me be you would help him do that?" Spike asked.

"That's… an indirect way of mounting an attack," Daniel noted.

"That was Lindsey for you," Angel said with a shrug. "He tended to avoid direct action until he had to."

"But the important thing is that he's gone and Spike doesn't have to worry about him any more?" Vala asked.

"Unlikely," Angel said, nodding briefly at her before he looked curiously at the other three. "So… you work for the government, you know that Spike's a vampire… and you're just… OK with that?"

"It's been a strange adjustment, but we concluded that he… offered some advantages that we couldn't easily overlook," Sam explained, shrugging slightly at Angel. "I'd give you more, but like I said, what we do is highly classified-"

"Get medical!" someone suddenly yelled from the hall outside. "Someone get medical NOW!"

As Angel ran out of his office to investigate the source of the yell, their current conversation clearly forgotten in favour of this new matter, the other four only needed a moment's glance before they were following the vampire. It was easy enough to identify the source of the distressed call; a man who seemed be slightly younger than Daniel was crouched half-way up a set of stairs, holding a convulsing young brunette in his arms as a man with green skin and red horns stared anxiously at them.

"Fred?" Angel said, looking anxiously at the young woman as he crouched down beside the two. "Wes, what happened?"

"I-I don't know," the man- 'Wes'- said, looking shakily up at Angel. "She said that she inhaled mummy dust earlier, but medical said she was fine…"

"Mummy dust?" Daniel repeated, looking curiously at the other man. "From what?"

"I-I don't…" Wes began, before he looked up and seemed to realise that he didn't know who this new arrival was. "Who are-?"

"He's with me," Spike said, nodding briefly at Wes as he joined the group. "Wes, this is Doctor Daniel Jackson, brilliant archaeologist; you got any kind of mummy, odds are he's read about it and can take a look-"

"We'll talk about what _you're_ doing here later, Spike," Wes said, glaring briefly at the vampire before he picked Fred up in his arms and began to run back up the stairs and along another corridor, the purpose in his manner making it clear that he was heading for the aforementioned medical division.

"Angelcakes, what's-?" the green man began.

"Later, Lorne," Angel said, before he turned to Daniel. "You as good as Spike said you are?"

"Yes," Daniel said, nodding at the other vampire.

"Lorne, take Doctor Jackson here to the science lab so that he can check out that sarcophagus," Angel said, before he looked at Spike, Vala and Sam. "For the moment, you're staying with me until we can sort this out; clear?"

"You can't think _we_ -?" Vala began.

"I don't," Angel said, looking over at Spike as Daniel and Lorne departed for the lab. "No offence, but even if you were lying about everything you've been doing to try and catch me off-guard, you wouldn't be this indirect about attacking me."

"Thanks… I guess," Spike said, before he shrugged slightly as he looked at Angel. "That said, I take it you want us to stay close to stop anyone accusing us of anything?"

"Considering what you were up to the last time you were in my city, that's probably for the best," Angel said, before he turned to look at the two women. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry about this."

"We understand," Sam said, nodding in acknowledgement at Angel before she looked up the stairs after Wes and the girl.

Spike may still be new to the team, but he and Sam had spent enough time together in that other reality for him to know what she was thinking right now; regardless of the confidentiality issues, if there was anything that they could do to save that girl, they were going to do it.


	3. Theories for Salvation

Standing in Fred's room as they waited for her to recover, Angel didn't know what should concern him more right now; Fred's mysterious condition, or the fact that Spike had shown up 'alive' several months after his apparent death in the destruction of Sunnydale, only to apparently be working for the military with no sign of coercion.

It wasn't that he wasn't as concerned about Fred as the rest of the gang- she'd been the first person to see his demon and still have faith in him even without hearing his true story- but Lawson's recent visit had stirred up memories of his own brief time as an unwilling recruit for the government, so he was entitled to be a bit suspicious about the idea of a military operation that seemed this comfortable having a vampire as a member…

In the end, however, the strangest thing was that he actually believed everything Spike had told him. The idea of his grand-childe willingly working for someone long-term might be strange, but he'd seen no sign since their arrival that Spike's current 'teammates' were doing anything to try and force him to stay with them or anything like that- the looks he kept exchanging with that 'Vala' woman were particularly significant in Angel's opinion- and while he might consider Spike an idiot at times, the other vampire wasn't _completely_ stupid; he would have figured out some way to escape those three if he didn't want to be with them.

Unfortunately, as much as Angel wished he could take some time to work out what kind of military organisation would find it useful to employ an archaeologist and a vampire if it wasn't dealing with demons in some way, he had more immediate matters to deal with right now; whatever was wrong with Fred, it was very clearly going to be dangerous if they didn't find some way to stop it. The medical staff had already taken extensive X-rays and run quite a few tests on her with some disturbing results, but he was waiting for Fred to wake up before they left her on her own so that she'd know what they were doing.

"It's my boys…" Fred's voice said, breaking Angel's train of thought as she slowly opened her eyes, looking at the group around her with a smile that only briefly faltered as she took in Spike and his new friends. "Who…?"

"They're friends," Angel said, stepping forward slightly to account for that piece of the puzzle himself; Wes, Gunn and Lorne had been surprised to see Spike in the firm, but they had accepted Angel's argument that this wasn't the time to ask questions about that when they had more urgent matters to discuss, even if they were all keeping an eye on the three strangers.

"You sure gave us all a big scare, Freddles," Lorne said, looking anxiously at her as he sat on the edge of her bed.

"You just need to rest," Angel said softly. "The lab is doing some blood work."

"I'm a mummy, aren't I?" Fred asked, her tone sounding resigned to her fate.

"I've fought plenty of mummies, and none of 'em were as pretty as you," Spike noted with a slight smile. "Almost none."

"Now y'all are being too comforting," Fred said, her eyes shut before she focused her gaze on Gunn. "What's really up?"

"You're sick," Gunn replied. "And you're makin' it worse by worryin'."

"We've got that sarcophagus under the scope," Knox put in (Angel wasn't as sure about that guy, but he was the official head of the science department now that Fred was… incapacitated). "If it gave you anything, we'll isolate it in a few hours."

"So you don't know what it is?" Fred asked.

"Yet," Angel said firmly, hoping he sounded confident that they'd find the answers; anything Wolfram & Hart couldn't immediately identify had to be _really_ old.

"OK," Fred said, simply accepting that statement.

"We're going to work on this," Angel said, smiling at her reassuringly as he indicated the new arrivals. "Shouldn't take long; we've even got some extra eyes for this one."

"Handsome man saves me," Fred said, smiling weakly at him.

"That's how it works," Angel confirmed, returning her smile. "Let's get crackin'."

With those words, the team filed out of the infirmary, only for Angel to pause after a few paces when he realised that Wesley wasn't with the rest of the group. Turning back to check on the infirmary, he paused outside the door as he saw Wesley sitting beside Fred, a tenderness about the ex-Watcher as he leaned over to kiss her forehead.

 _Wes and Fred_ …

Angel hadn't even known that they'd started dating recently, but now that he knew, he just had a further reason to try and save Fred; after everything she'd been through in Pylea, combined with what Wes had endured the last year alone (Even if he wasn't clear how much of that Wes remembered after all memory of Connor had been erased), they deserved that.

"How's she handling it?" he asked as Wes left the infirmary to join him, the group purposefully heading for the main lobby.

"She's smarter than all of us put together; she knows it's bad," Wesley said grimly.

"Not _all_ of us, mate," Spike put in, indicating two of the people who'd come here with him. "Not denying she's bright, but Sam and Dan here have cracked a few scientific and archaeological mysteries over the years; be _very_ surprised if they can't do anything to help us right now-"

"Don't," Angel said, glaring at his grand-childe before looking at the other two; he didn't have time to listen to the other vampire trying to pander to his ego, but he was willing to accept that these two may have some useful insight. "You're sure you can help?"

"This… isn't our area of expertise, but we'll do what we can," Sam said, shooting a reproachful glare at Spike even as she nodded at Angel, Spike's other two friends doing the same.

"What _is_ this thing anyway?" Gunn asked. "I mean, what do we _know_?"

"Whatever she's got, it doesn't match up with any of the pathogens in our archives," Knox said. "It's mystical, and it's not ours."

"You're sure it's mystical?" Daniel asked. "I mean, it couldn't just be some kind of natural medical phenomenon?"

"It's… well, magic and science are tricky to bring together, but it's got the right traces to be mystical," Knox said, looking at Daniel in confusion. "I'm sorry; who _are_ you?"

"Doctor Daniel Jackson," Daniel replied, smiling briefly at the other man. "I'm an archaeologist; I… work with Spike as part of an Air Force program in Colorado."

"Air Force?" Lorne said in surprise. "What-?"

"That's not relevant right now," Angel said firmly; even if he wanted to know the answers to that himself, they had to prioritise. "What _do_ we know about that sarcophagus?"

"My team is cross-checking the symbols, but it's also new territory for us," Wes said.

"We've never seen anything like it either, if that helps," Vala put in.

"Angel, what exactly is happening to her?" Gunn asked, looking anxiously at the vampire. "You talked to the doctor-"

"They have something?" Wes asked.

"Yeah," Angel said, turning to look grimly at the group as they gathered around him in the main lobby. "Some parasitic agent is working its way through. I mean, as near as they can tell…"

"Get to the point," Wesley said firmly, clearly wanting his friend to cut to the chase. .

"Her organs are cooking," Angel said, fear evident on his face as he looked at his team. "In a day's time, they'll liquefy."

"Oh my God…" Sam said, staring at the other vampire in horror.

She'd encountered a lot of disturbing ways to die over her years in the Stargate program, but she could barely imagine what _that_ would feel like…

"That's not happening," Daniel said firmly. "We are _going_ to save your friend."

"We will," Angel said firmly as he looked at Daniel. "You're an archaeologist, right; good with languages?"

"Yeah…" Daniel said.

"Good," Angel said firmly. "You're with Wes; I need you both working on what was in that box. I need a name, history, anything."

"We can't get it open," Knox said. "Not even the lasers-"

"Where did it come from?" Wesley asked, turning to look at the other man.

"It just showed up," Knox said, almost ashamed at his own ignorance. "No return address; didn't recognize the guy who brought it in… come to think of it, in the middle of the night."

"This was deliberate," Angel said.

"Senior Partners?" Lorne asked.

"Doesn't add up, but I'll hit the White Room; talk to the conduit," Gunn suggested.

"If the Senior Partners don't know about this, you've got to get them to help us," Angel said (He'd worry about what Spike's new friends would make of this conversation later; if they were working with Spike in full knowledge of what he was, he'd assume they knew at least _some_ details of what else was out there).

"Any way I can," Gunn said.

"What about that Lindsey character we were talking about earlier?" Vala asked. "I mean, if he was after you, couldn't he have done something like this?"

"I was looking to work the streets, and we've got his address," Angel said, nodding briefly in acknowledgement of Vala's suggestion. "For all we know, he's probably sitting there laughing. And if there's muscle work to do…"

"Let's make it twice as fast," Spike said.

"Count me in too," Vala said firmly, as she moved to stand beside Spike.

"And baby makes four," Lorne added. "Just in case anyone feels like singing."

"Singing?" Vala repeated.

"I can see your past and future when you sing," Lorne explained briefly.

"Good," Angel said, before Sam or Daniel could ask further questions. "Guys-"

"You don't have to say it," Wes began.

"I'll say it anyway," Angel said, grimly taking in the group around them. "Winifred Burkle. Go."

With those words, everyone headed off in separate directions, the 'street team' heading for the elevator down to the garage while Sam and Knox went towards the lab and Daniel joined Wes in going for his office.

Spike's friends might be strangers, but they were strangers who accepted Spike and lacked the hostility and arrogance of the Initiative that Angel had heard so much about; it couldn't hurt to at least give them a shot at trying to find something that could save Fred...

* * *

  
With Wesley going over his available books in his office, Daniel had decided to use the opportunity to study some of the other books in Angel's office; considering what Spike and Angel had told them about this firm's reputation, he and Sam didn't want to make their presence too public, and Angel's office had seemed like the best place for him to carry out his work without anyone walking in on him. Even with Spike's explanation and Merlin's remaining memories giving him a background in magic, it was still a shock to read this kind of detailed information about vampires and demons and know that it was _real_ , rather than a misinterpretation of alien influence by a primitive culture.

He'd known going in that this wasn't going to be a conventional crisis for SG-1, but the end result was still the same; if they focused on pooling their resources, he'd been optimistic that they'd manage to find _something_ that they could use to save Winifred Burkle.

Unfortunately, so far he was unable to find anything that accurately matched what was happening to the young physicist, and there was no sign that any of the other avenues of investigation were going to come to anything. Charles Gunn had briefly dropped in to tell him that his visit to the Conduit (Whatever that was) hadn't provided him with anything they could use, and Wesley had stated that he had found nothing the last time Daniel had dropped into his office to collect a new set of books.

The sound of someone at the door prompted him to turn around, but he relaxed when the only person to come in was Sam; she was clearly frustrated at what she'd discovered, or failed to discover, but otherwise seemed to be fairly together.

"Anything?" he asked, looking up at Sam.

"Not so far," Sam said, sighing in frustration as she sat down beside him. "I thought that we could buy some time by putting her in cryogenic suspension- they might not have Ancient technology, but they do have the best human science can offer- but this infection seems to be impervious to the cold. The blood tissues freeze, but whatever's infecting Miss Burkle just keeps on working; I'm not sure if even the Ancient chambers in the Antarctic research base would have any effect…"

Lost for anything he could say to that revelation, Daniel reached over to place a comforting hand on Sam's shoulder, looking sympathetically at his friend and girlfriend.

"You tried," he said, looking encouragingly at her. "That's all we can do right now…"

"The problem lies in the rapid rate of the infection," Sam said, shaking her head in frustration. "I know we're doing all that we can, but we can't be sure we'll even manage to find something before it kills her, and if we can't slow it down…"

"Hold on…" Daniel said, sitting up sharply as a thought occurred to him.

"What?" Sam asked, looking curiously at him.

"I might have something…" Daniel said, standing up thoughtfully and turning around just as Angel walked into the office, looking at the two of them in surprise.

"What are you doing here?" the other vampire asked.

"I… thought that you'd prefer it if we didn't make our presence here too public," Daniel said, indicating his surroundings with an uncertain wave before he looked at Angel in a more focused manner. "Actually, it's good to see you; I was wondered if you could tell me if you have any way to extract a soul?"

"Extract a soul?" Angel repeated, looking curiously at the archaeologist. "What do you-?"

"It just occurred to me that…" Daniel began, pausing momentarily before he made up his mind and looked directly at Angel. "In advance, I'm sorry if it's something you don't like to discuss, but if you and Spike could both get your souls _back_ , isn't it possible to somehow remove the soul from a living being and keep it somewhere safe while the body's… well, like Fred?"

"Hold on; you're suggesting we… extract Fred's soul?" Angel asked, looking at Daniel in surprise. "And then what? If we can't cure her, she's still going to-"

"Cloning!" Sam said, her eyes widening in realisation as she looked at Daniel.

"Cloning?" Angel repeated, his gaze shifting to the astrophysicist in confusion. "What are you-?"

"Your labs have samples of Miss Burkle's DNA on file," Sam explained, looking eagerly over at Angel. "I… can't explain how, exactly- I'm only telling you this much because you obviously already keep your share of secrets from the rest of the world- but if you could provide us with a sample of her DNA, we could extract her soul and clone a new body for her before aging it to her current age in a matter of months…"

Her voice trailed off as her smile faltered. "Except… that would save _her_ , but we can't save her memory…"

"We never recovered that part of the technology?" Daniel asked.

"Even if we knew where it was, we don't have time to get it here before the rate of infection would have ravaged Miss Burkle's brain to the point that we'd be unable to take any kind of scans," Sam said, looking apologetically at Angel. "I'm sorry, but-"

"You don't need to worry about that," Angel said, smiling thoughtfully as he looked between them. "I can vouch for the fact that the soul has its own memory; whenever I was cursed, it always took me a few minutes to remember what had happened since I lost it, even if I knew that time _had_ passed."

"OK, that's… good," Sam said, nodding gratefully at Angel even as the sceptical expression on her face made it clear that she was unsure how to react to that; the idea of there being evidence that the soul had its own memory raised various theological questions that she clearly wasn't sure how to process right now. "If the soul remembers on its own, it _should_ be possible to just… transplant the soul into the new body…"

"So… does that mean that you have a way to extract her soul?" Daniel asked, looking anxiously at Angel.

"I think so," the vampire said, nodding at Daniel with a smile. "Give me a few minutes, and then both of you meet me in Fred's room; last I checked, she was still resting, so we _might_ have a chance…"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone thinks I made it too easy, just remember one thing; Angel's had his vision already, so there are other factors in play right now…


	4. Saving Souls

After they'd arrived in Fred's room, Sam and Daniel were left in the awkward position of not knowing what to do next. Fred seemed to be sleeping fairly peacefully at this point, even if she looked far too pale for anyone who wasn't Spike or Angel, but the readouts on the medical equipment attached to her weren't exactly encouraging.

She had checked in with the lab before coming here, and had been able to confirm that they had samples of Fred's DNA prior to infection- most likely taken in case Fred was ever carrying out experiments and needed to confirm whether her DNA had contaminated a sample- so creating a clone should be straightforward enough once they had access to the right equipment; she just hoped that Angel's claim that they had a means of extracting Fred's soul would be safe…

She was thinking about extracting someone's soul to save their life; her life had become even stranger since she met Spike.

Thoughts of her strange life were cut short when Angel walked into the room, wearing a long black coat and hands in his pocket.

"Where-?" Daniel began.

" _Involvere_!" Angel proclaimed, pulling a crystal out of his pocket and holding it in front of him, generating a strange burst of energy that seemed to fill the room without doing anything to the room or its inhabitants.

"OK," Angel said, looking between the two members of SG-1, "we've got about six minutes before the glamour collapses, so here's the situation; _this_ -" he pulled out what looked like a gun made out of bone connected to some kind of round glass jar, "is what I'm provisionally calling a 'soul extractor' as the real name's overly complicated to pronounce in English; it was used by the soul trade division of the supernatural black market a few years ago to extract and hold souls before they were acquired by collectors. My team and I took out the main people responsible for operating that division of the market, and we released the souls they had in their archives, but some of their equipment was recovered by Wolfram & Hart and kept in storage just in case; it might be just what we need right now."

"OK…" Daniel said, looking uncertainly at the vampire as he reached over to take the offered extractor from him; it was a mark of the lives they'd lived that the idea of a supernatural black market wasn't that strange to him. "And the… crystal thing?"

"Generated a glamour so that we can be sure nobody's watching us," Angel explained. "I have to be sure we have privacy while talking about this."

"Why do you need privacy?" Sam asked. "I thought that you were in charge here?"

"Just of this branch," Angel said grimly. "And I recently learned that there's something else out there that's much bigger than any of us knew."

"What?" Daniel asked, looking at the vampire in confusion.

"The Circle of the Black Thorn," Angel explained. "They're an elite organisation focused on acquiring power in preparation for the Senior Partners' planned apocalypse, making sure man's inhumanity to man keeps on rolling, that kind of thing; they basically act on the Partners' behalf on this plane of existence. I learned that the Circle existed a month or so ago, but I haven't been able to do anything about it; my… source… didn't give me many clues to their identity."

"And I'm guessing they're not easy to infiltrate?" Sam asked, exchanging a grim glance with Daniel.

"From what I've found, if I was going to even talk to one of them, I'd need to give up my position as champion and kill one of my team," Angel explained, grimly looking at the unconscious Fred. "Which is why I was thinking that this could be the perfect opportunity to make them think I'm giving in to the power without actually _losing_ anyone…"

"Oh," Daniel said, looking between the extractor and the crystal in understanding. "So… you're thinking that we extract Fred's soul while the room's protected by this glamour, we act like this plan didn't work, and then you… pretend that you arranged for this to happen while we're getting her new body ready?"

"If you can do it," Angel said, looking at the two of them with a particularly grim expression. "This is Fred's _soul_ we're talking about here; I'll do what I can to save her life regardless, but I wouldn't even be considering this unless I was afraid that my best won't be enough, and I need to know I have a fallback plan that can help me get into the Circle _and_ save her."

She might not know the vampire before her that well, but looking at the desperation in Angel's manner as he considered even the possibility of losing Fred, Sam knew that he was being honest about that much.

This plan involved an insanely complicated combination of the world she thought she knew and the world they'd only glimpsed since Spike had materialised out of the amulet in Daniel's office, but their plan _could_ work…

"We can do it," she said, looking confidently at the vampire; the theological implications of Angel's revelation about the nature of the soul raised various questions, but she had to focus on the priority right now. "All we need is a DNA sample, and then, if you're right about how the soul… has its own memory… we _can_ save her life."

"But… how are you going to fake responsibility for her death?" Daniel asked, looking at Angel uncertainly. "I mean, we were talking about saving her earlier…"

"The glamour I just cast should create the illusion that the extractor failed to remove Fred's soul and we spent time trying to figure out an alternative before giving up," Angel explained. "I can create a fake paper trail that'll suggest I really did arrange for Illyria's resurrection and Fred's death- the Circle will assume I just faked my efforts to save her to deflect attention from me once _they_ find the evidence- but I'll need a safe way to get in touch with you guys afterwards so that you can let me know when Fred's new body is ready."

"I can arrange that," Sam said, nodding at him in understanding. "We've… had some experience at arranging communication lines when we don't want to be overheard by our enemies; if we can sort out some code phrases before we leave, I can set something up for later and get in touch with you when it's ready."

"Just so long as you keep us up-to-date on things at this end as well," Daniel added. "What you're talking about… it sounds like you might need some help."

"If everything I've seen is accurate, I may not even _survive_ what I'm planning even with help," Angel said, shaking his head with a grimly amused smile as he looked at the archaeologist. "You may be good, but unless you can think of somewhere where we can hide from the Senior Partners-"

"We can," Sam said suddenly.

"You can?" Angel repeated. "You _do_ know that we're talking about-"

"Considering what you've dealt with in the past, and with Spike setting a precedent for… well, for the benefits of your expertise… we can probably find somewhere safe for you," Daniel said, smiling thoughtfully at Sam before looking back at Angel. "We can't tell you anything without you signing some of the confidentiality agreements, and it's going to take a while to make the arrangements at our end, but since we both have things to do first, it probably balances out."

"Good," Angel said, nodding thankfully at Daniel before indicating the extractor. "The glamour's about to end; get Fred's soul out of her and we'll worry about everything else later."

Nodding in agreement, Daniel turned to point the 'weapon' at Fred and pulled what probably passed for the trigger. For a moment, glowing energy seemed to emerge from the extractor to surround Fred's body before it vanished, leaving the formerly empty glass 'jar' on the extractor now holding what Daniel assumed was Fred's soul. If he had to compare it to anything, Daniel would have described it as an Ascended who had somehow been contained in a small form, with some kind of physical presence behind it as opposed to its usual glowing white light, but that didn't quite seem right…

He pushed those thoughts aside as he slipped the glowing orb into his pocket; considering Angel's obvious concerns that they were being watched, it would be best to get that thing somewhere secure until later.

"Will she… be all right?" Sam asked, indicating the now-soulless Fred uncertainly.

"She'll be fine; without the soul or anything animating it, the human body's basically in a coma except for… certain circumstances," Angel said, before he looked more firmly at the other two. "OK, Wes is looking up what we have about whatever's trying to take Fred's body; we've provisionally identified it as an Old One, but he needs to determine precisely which one."

"Old One?" Sam repeated in confusion.

"The original demons," Daniel said, a thoughtful expression on his face as though he was having to concentrate to remember what he was talking about (Sam suddenly recalled some of the things he'd mentioned about the memories he'd retained from Merlin; he might have lost Merlin's personality, but he still recalled some of the things he'd remembered as Merlin). "They were… they didn't _die_ the way we do… most of them were just driven out of this dimension, but the exceptions were… were…"

"Trapped in something called the Deeper Well," Angel finished, looking curiously at Daniel for a moment before he dismissed it; Spike's comment about Daniel having had access to Merlin's memories was interesting, but this was hardly the time to discuss it even if the Partners hadn't been listening in. "Like I said, Wes is looking for anything else; if we can't do anything here, we might as well go there."

Daniel wasn't sure how Angel knew if the glamour had finished or if he was just guessing, but it wasn't important right now; they had Fred's soul safe (And that was something he never thought he'd have to worry about), and if Angel had been honest about his plans- which Daniel was fairly sure he had been- the priority right now was to focus on trying to save Fred's body and act as though nothing had changed.

On the bright side, Fred's soul had looked reasonably healthy- he might be judging it based on its resemblance to an Ancient, but his vague memories from his own Ascension and what he retained from Merlin assured him that the soul he'd seen was safe- so the only thing left for them to do was collect the sample from the lab and take it away once this crisis was resolved, one way or the other…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone wants clarification on how Daniel can still access Merlin's memories, it's basically similar to what happened in the recent 'Superior Spider-Man' storyline, where Doctor Octopus downloaded himself into Peter Parker/Spider-Man's body; he initially had access to Peter's memories, but when he realised that some part of Peter's personality was still in his body, he tried to 'delete' Peter from his mind, at the cost of erasing everything but the memories he'd already accessed. I'm therefore assuming that, while Daniel can't recall the technical details of the Sangraal, and cannot recall _all_ of Merlin's life, he can remember details such as what Merlin shared with him about the history of magic and demons in this world, along with some of the other details about the Knights of Camelot.


	5. Darker Revelations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to clarify in advance, Fred will remain in an apparent coma now that her soul has been extracted; Ryan may have been able to take action in "I've Got You Under My Skin", but I'm assuming that he still had _some_ kind of soul, whereas in the novel "Soul Trade"- which used the soul-extraction method that Fred's been subjected to here- a young girl whose soul was stolen remained completely comatose until her soul was restored

Sitting silently beside Fred as she lay in her room- the doctors had soon confirmed that they couldn't do anything else to help her at Wolfram & Hart, so it had been decided that it was time to put a priority on comfort over medical expertise and send her home for a time- Wesley wondered how it had come to this.

The knowledge that the woman he loved was basically being 'hollowed out' to act as the host to an Old One was a disturbing prospect, but he had to have faith that Angel, Spike and that mysterious 'Vala' woman would pull through; he might only know Angel's skills from personal experience (He just hadn't seen enough of Spike's abilities during the battle on Questral to know what he was like now), but he knew enough about Spike's reputation from his pre-soul days to have faith that he would be a useful ally for Angel in this upcoming battle, and he'd assume that Spike had some evidence that the enigmatic 'Vala Mal Doran' could pull her weight as well…

He just wished that their prospective adversary had less of a reputation than it did. Illyria might not have been a matter of public knowledge, but from what he'd read in the source texts, its power had been significant even among the other Old Ones… and now Fred's body was being used as an egg/womb so that Illyria could be reborn in the modern world.

Doctor Jackson had promised to continue researching Illyria's history to see if he could find anything about slowing down the rate of the infection, but Wesley had his doubts that anything would come of it; the Old Ones were so ancient some speculated that they pre-dated the first spells, which made it unlikely that anything younger than them could affect them. Colonel Carter was working with Knox to try and find a scientific solution, but with simply freezing Fred eliminated, Wesley wasn't sure what was left to try; her skin was already so hard that they couldn't inject her with anything even if they had hope of finding something.

In a sad sense, he was grateful that Fred had fallen into a coma shortly before he'd moved her to her room for additional comfort. As much as he would have liked to speak to her at this time, at least this way he didn't have to see her in pain, and he could enjoy seeing her apparently rest… so long as he ignored her pale skin and the blue splotches that were developing on her cheeks, anyway.

Angel _had_ to save her…

* * *

  
Angel had no idea how he'd let himself get talked into this plan under these circumstances. Trusting two people he'd only just met with Fred's soul was the most extreme risk he'd taken for some time, particularly when those people admitted themselves that they only had a limited experience of magic, and now here he was, setting off on a mission that he may have to sabotage if he wanted his larger plan against the Circle to succeed, his only back-up being a grand-childe he hadn't seen for years (And who'd only been working with him because he had to the last time they'd met) and a strange woman he'd never met before.

It wasn't that he doubted Spike's abilities or thought that the enigmatic 'Vala Mal Doran' would fold under the pressure- he'd developed a good knack for figuring people out over the years, and Vala didn't strike him as the kind of person who'd break down when things got rough- but he still didn't really _know_ them…

"Haven't flown in one of these before," Spike said, glancing thoughtfully out of the window.

"Me neither," Vala noted thoughtfully. "I've been in… other things, though."

"I've been in a helicopter," Angel said, looking anxiously out of the window as he spoke; he didn't think that he actually had a _fear_ of flying, but focusing on that fear helped him feign concern about Fred's condition even if he knew her soul would be safe. "They don't… go this high."

"Back to the mother country," Spike said, out of a lack of anything else to say. "Hey, after we save Fred, we should hit the West End, take in a show."

"I've never seen _Les Mis_ …" Angel mused with a slight smile; with everything going on in his life right now, taking a break to see a show sounded like a good idea…

"Trust me," Spike scoffed, "half-way through the first act, you'll be drinking humans again."

"Actually, I think I'd like it," Vala pointed out. "Tales of redemption… they're not something I encounter very often."

"Thought you didn't really believe in that stuff," Spike said, looking curiously at Vala.

"For _some_ people, yes; I'm not _that_ cynical, Spike," Vala retorted, looking at the vampire with a pointed stare.

"I can't lose her," Angel said suddenly.

"You won't," Spike said, looking reassuringly at his grandsire.

"I lost Cordy," Angel noted.

"The cheerleader's dead?" Spike said, looking at his sire in surprise. "What happened to her?"

"She fell into a coma a few months back when a rogue higher power basically impregnated her with itself to try and escape into our world," Angel explained grimly.

Sharing this kind of thing with Spike felt strange, but something about this new version of Spike just made him easier to talk to about stuff; it wasn't like he and Spike were _competing_ about anything now…

"Ah," Spike said, nodding sympathetically at Angel. "That had to suck."

"She was… impregnated by something to give birth to… itself?" Vala repeated in confusion, an apprehensive sympathy about her manner. "How did that work?"

"She spent some time on a different plane of existence last summer and was secretly possessed by this… rogue higher power before she returned to our level," Angel explained. "It initially manifested in her body without its memory, but then its memory was restored with a degree of its full powers, and it… was able to conceive a child that would be its true body on this plane. The pregnancy was accelerated and she gave birth barely a few weeks after conception, but the strain of giving birth to that thing left Cordy in a coma for a few months before she… died a couple of weeks ago."

"Ah," Spike noted, looking thoughtfully at his sire. "That part of the reason you took this job? Give her the best medical care while she was in a coma in case it helped?"

"It was… one of many things that prompted my decision," Angel confirmed solemnly. He might find this new Spike easier to talk to, but he wasn't going to admit to Connor's existence when he was keeping his son's memory secret from his own friends, even without the fact that Vala Mal Doran was a complete unknown right now.

"Anyway," Vala said, smiling over at Angel, "for what it's worth… I appreciate you being so welcoming towards us about this."

"Huh?" Angel said.

"Well, we just dropped in on you and ended up involved in what has to be a _very_ complicated situation by anyone's standards, but you've done what you can to accommodate us and even let us help into the bargain," Vala explained. "It's been complicated, and I'm really sorry about your friend, but it's been… interesting… to meet you all."

"Well…" Angel began, shrugging as he looked awkwardly at her for a moment before he gave Vala a slight smile of its own. "It's been… interesting to meet you and your friends."

"Not gettin' any ideas, there, are you?" Spike asked, his smile having a teasing aspect to it that had never been present in their past interaction.

"You were the one with that approach," Angel said (He wasn't going to bring up the idea that Spike wanted to be him right now; Vala and his new friends seemed to have helped Spike move on from that, and dragging him down wouldn't help).

* * *

  
Sitting in the lab, staring at the material gathered before her, Sam had to admit that it was amazing to take in everything that Winifred Burkle had recorded about how magic could interact with science. Spike had given her some things to think about regarding spells, and Daniel had shared some of the details he'd remembered about Merlin's knowledge of magic, but a sizeable portion of this lab seemed to be dedicated to exploring how the two came together, even if most of the information recorded was highly speculative…

Unfortunately, as interesting as it was to read about this information, she just didn't have the time to explore this information if she was going to at least look like she was trying to help Fred. She had managed to find and conceal a sample of Fred's DNA from some of the lab's archives- she acknowledged Angel's warning, but it wasn't like these 'Senior Partners' he was talking about could watch everything she did, and there were other reasons for her to want the sample- but she was running out of ideas for what she could do with what she had available…

As the door opened, Sam looked up to see Gunn and Knox come storming in, Gunn looking particularly anxious as he scanned the lab before his eyes fell on her.

"Have you tested cryogenics yet?" the lawyer asked.

"Cryogenics?" Sam repeated in surprise.

"Yeah; we freeze her until we can find a more permanent solution-" Knox began.

"I already tested that," Sam said, looking apologetically at the two men.

"What?" Gunn said in shock. "How'd-?"

"I ran a test on the cell samples earlier, but then… Daniel and I got caught up in trying out another theory and it fell to the back of my mind," Sam said, shaking her head in regret. "The blood cells froze, but the infection continued regardless; I guess it just… slipped my mind to make sure that the rest of you all knew that it wouldn't work."

" _Damnit_!" Gunn yelled, slamming one hand against the wall in exasperation before he looked over at the two scientists, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself. "OK, that's a bust; do you guys have _anything_ else?"

"I don't… um…" Knox began, swallowing anxiously as he sat down in a nearby chair, shaking his head in exasperation. "Look, I'd never tell her this, but I… I care about Fred more than… She's like no one I've met, you know."

"Yeah, I know," Gunn said, sitting down opposite Knox, Sam sitting between and away from them as she looked at them both, feeling awkwardly like she was intruding on a private moment but unwilling to leave and draw more attention to her presence.

"And nothing would make me happier than to be the White Knight in this situation and to have her look at me the way that…" Knox confessed, before his voice trailed off as though lost for words. "I mean, I don't just care about Fred, I practically worship it."

Sam's blood froze at that statement.

"It?" she and Gunn said simultaneously.

"What?" Knox said, looking back at them.

"Not 'her'," Gunn clarified, Sam still staring at Knox as she tried to process what she'd just heard. "You said 'I worship _it_ '."

The casual smile on Knox's face as he realised he'd been rumbled suddenly reminded Sam of that sickening moment when she realised that her Replicator double had been playing them.

"Oops," he said nonchalantly, as though it didn't even matter that he'd just exposed his real agenda.

Even after training to fight Jaffa for years, Sam had rarely seen someone move as fast as Gunn did at that moment. Lunging from his chair, Gunn grabbed Knox by the lapels of his lab-coat and slammed him into a lab desk, breaking glass as he glared at the other scientist.

"You did this!" he yelled, glaring at the other man. "You did all of this!"

"Technically," Knox protested, "that's not the case; I just played my part-"

"Why?" Sam said, glaring at the man before her in disgust. "What would you have to gain by letting something like this… _Illyria_ thing out of its box?"

"Exactly; what's this all about?" Gunn asked. "Jealousy? You couldn't stand the thought of Wes winning her, so you _kill_ her?"

"No!" Knox protested, actually sounding genuinely indignant as he shrugged Gunn off him and walked away. "I meant everything I said about her. I chose Fred because I love her, because she's worthy. You think I'd have my god hatched out of some schmuck?"

"What are you…?" Gunn began, suddenly lost at this news.

"This was all set in motion millions of years ago," Knox said, grinning at the two of them. "There's just no way to stop it."

"There's _always_ a way to stop prophecy," Sam said firmly.

"Yeah," Gunn said, joining her in glaring at Knox. "Angel's already on his way-"

"Oh, he's on the right track, but it doesn't matter," Knox said with a mocking grin. "He's not gonna save her."

"You don't know Angel," Gunn said grimly.

"And you _really_ don't know Spike and Vala," Sam added.

"Oh, it doesn't matter," Knox said. "I know enough about them to know that they're going to have to _let_ her die in the end."

"What-?" Gunn began.

"We'll discuss _that_ later," Sam said, glaring between the two men before she focused on Knox; she wasn't in the mood to discuss religious issues with a human fanatic after spending so much time dealing with the more fanatical devotion of the Jaffa, particularly when she knew so little about demon worship. "What do you mean, this was all set in motion millennia ago?"

"Only those of the faith know what was to happen, and there's only a few of us now," Knox explained, stepping back to grin at Gunn and Sam as he continued to talk. "I came to L.A. because I knew that's where its kingdom has been. It was supposed to teleport back to the base of its power, but the continents drifted- which they do. I had others help me get it here, but then it got stuck in- would you believe it- customs."

Sam briefly wondered why Gunn was looking so unnerved at that statement, but the question was answered when Knox reached into his lab coat and pulled out a piece of paper.

"But you took care of that," Knox explained in satisfaction. "You signed the order to bring it into the lab so you could get another brain boost."

"What?" Sam said, looking at Gunn in shock. "Why-?"

"Not now," Gunn said, looking anxiously at her before focusing on Knox. "You really think some screwy prophecyis going to stop Angel?"

"We're all just part of the great machine," Knox said. "All I've done is play my part. What Angel's fighting against is older than the concept of time. I couldn't stop it. There's nothing left to do now, but wait to figure out-"

Gunn decked Knox with a powerful punch before he could finish that sentence, glaring at the fallen scientist and grabbing a nearby metal canister before Sam grabbed his arm.

"He's down," she said, looking firmly at Gunn. "In the meantime, what was Knox talking about with that 'brain boost'?"

Gunn looked uncertainly at her for a moment before he sighed in resignation.

"Before we came here, I was… well, I was basically a street punk," he explained solemnly, putting the canister down. "I spent my life taking out vamps on the street, living for the moment, focused on the cause… God, one point I sold my soul for a truck just because I didn't see a future…"

He sighed. "Then we came here, and I was given the chance to be more than just the muscle… they gave me this mental upgrade thing, downloading a whole bunch of legal knowledge into my head so that I could act as the team lawyer, working the system so that we could use this place the way we wanted to…"

"I see," Sam said, looking at him in a non-judgemental manner; she'd never gone that far herself, but she could appreciate the temptation to take steps to move beyond what you were before. "So… what happened?"

"I started losing it a few weeks back; had trouble recalling specific terms and precedents, that kind of thing," Gunn explained. "Thought I was just tired at first, but then I spoke to a doc who described it as the whole 'Flowers for Algernon' syndrome- what I'd received was just a temporary upgrade that would soon wear off- but he said he'd only make it permanent it if I helped him get some box through customs. I knew there'd be a price, but I didn't think it'd be one of us… I didn't think anyone would get that hurt… I thought if it was something _that_ bad we'd work out how to stop it…"

Looking at the man before her, who'd seemed so strong when she first met him and who was now virtually reduced to tears as he realised what he had done, Sam found it all too easy to see what had happened.

She might not have been in that position herself, but she could easily understand not wanting to go back to the way you'd been before; the thought of losing the new relationship she'd formed with her father over her years in the SGC alone was particularly depressing…

"I'm not going to pretend to understand what kind of role you played in this, Mr… Gunn," she said at last, looking solemnly at him. "What I _do_ know is that you're not the first person to be so eager to get what you're after that you miss the fine print until it's too late; my team and I once nearly made a deal with a… foreign government engaged in a civil war before we realised that they were the villains in the conflict because we wanted their technology. You made a mistake, but I'm not going to judge you for taking a risk like that for your own benefit; you were in a very complicated situation and I'm not qualified to point fingers."

"Fred's _dying_ because of me-!" Gunn began.

"She's dying because this man has a warped obsession with an ancient demon and has a warped way of expressing affection; you just made it easier for him to get it here, but he would have found another way to get it here if he's as devoted as he seems to be," Sam corrected firmly, indicating Knox as he lay on the ground beside them. "Who's to blame for what isn't as important as the fact that we've taken out a key player in this conspiracy and you know someone else who's involved in this; is there someone who can keep an eye on Knox while we talk to that doctor you mentioned?"

Gunn looked at her in an appraising manner for a moment, evidently trying to decide whether she was being honest about her decision, until he nodded in acknowledgement.

"Yeah," he said, eyes narrowing as he looked contemptuously at the man on the ground. "I've got a couple of ideas about where we can leave this son of a bitch…"

* * *

  
Considering the severity of the situation that had brought them here, Vala didn't want to say anything too negative about their destination, but so far she was feeling somewhat disappointed. She'd heard that England had a great reputation for natural beauty and fascinating cities, but she'd barely managed to see anything after the jet had landed as Angel and Spike were hurried to a car that was somehow protected from the last rays of sunlight of that day, and then driven all the way to the outskirts of a mist-covered forest after the sun set, leaving the three of them to just keep walking towards the heart of the trees where the 'Deeper Well' was apparently located.

"When is a door not a door?" Spike pondered. "When it's not sodding well there."

"Right there," Angel said, halting as he indicated a large tree ahead of them, with twisted branches and a large opening at its base.

"That's the entrance to the Deeper Well?" Vala said in surprise. "I was expecting something… well… flashier."

"These kind of things are best disguised as something that'll blend in, luv," Spike said, smiling over at her. "It's not like your usual sparring partners where they need to blow their own trumpets all the time-"

Spike's explanation was interrupted as light suddenly flashed around them- they would have attributed it to a flash of lightning if it wasn't for the lack of rain- followed by two figures dressed in leather armour and carrying two large swords emerging from the tree, hurrying towards them.

" _That's_ not good…" Vala noted, suddenly feeling frustrating under-armed; Spike and Angel had their vampire strength, and she'd done some training at the SGC, but that wouldn't be enough against these numbers.

"Vala, stand back," Angel said, looking over at her before glancing at Spike. "Spike, hold my hand."

Looking quizzically at the other vampire, Spike nevertheless did as he had been told, taking Angel's hand and smiling at what he felt there. "St Petersburg."

"Thought you'd forgotten," Angel replied, before the two released their grip on each other's arms, revealing a length of wire between them. As Vala watched, the two vampires waited until the creatures were right in front of them, and then stepped aside and pulled the wire taut, the creatures running into the wire with such force that it severed their necks. Grabbing the dead demons' fallen swords, Angel and Spike leapt into action against the next wave of demons, Spike pausing only briefly to toss Vala another sword before he dived into action himself. The creatures were fairly strong combatants, but it didn't take long to determine that their actual combat skills were shockingly limited; Vala had never even really used a sword before now, and even she was able to deflect most of their attacks even if she had trouble landing any serious blows of her own.

A few parries and punches were generally all the two vampires and the ex-Goa'uld host needed to put down each creature before moving on to the next one, the sheer number of forces arrayed against them the only real problem they had to overcome. At one point two charging demons managed to knock Spike down, but his fall was cushioned by the bodies of the previously defeated demons, allowing him to quickly regain his balance and deliver a fatal chest-wound to the creature that had knocked him down, a final stab from Angel ending the last demon left standing.

"Is that all?" Angel yelled to the sky. "We haven't even started!"

"I'd say that's enough," another voice said, as a man appeared from the tree gateway to walk towards them. The new arrival had shoulder-length brown hair and was dressed in a smarter version of the leather armour worn by the creatures, as well as a long brown cloak.

"Drogyn," Angel said, looking at the man in surprise.

"Angel," the man responded.

"You're the keeper of the Well?"

"Have been for decades," Drogyn said with a firm nod.

"Well, who in the bloody-?" Spike began.

" _Do not_ ask me a question," Drogyn said, glaring at Spike. "If you ever ask me a single question, I will kill you outright; don't think for a moment that I can't."

"He can," Angel noted quietly. "He would."

"Pardon?" Vala said.

"You're here about Illyria," Drogyn said, ignoring Vala's question to look at Angel.

"Yes," Angel said.

"Walk in," Drogyn said, turning around towards the tree.

"But how-?" Spike began

"I just said to you, not _one moment ago_ , DON'T ask," Drogyn said, staring intently at Spike for a moment before he resumed his path towards the tree.

"Seriously," Angel said, looking over at Spike. "He doesn't like questions."

"Why the bloody hell not?" the other vampire asked.

"He can't lie," Angel explained.

"Ah," Vala said.

Deciding not to follow that topic up, she simply followed the two vampires and the mysterious Drogyn into the tree. The four soon found themselves in a long dark underground passage, rough bumps in the passage ceiling that could have been roots or rocks.

"I would never have thought you'd end up here, Angel," Drogyn said as he led the way along the passage, a flaming torch in his hand.

"I could say the same," Angel replied.

"So you know each other?" Vala asked.

"That was a statement," Spike noted as Drogyn glared at the strange woman. "We already know you do."

"I'll tell you as much as I can," Drogyn said, turning around a corner as they continued along the passage. "The old ones were demons pure. They warred as we would breathe- endlessly. The greater ones were interred, for death was not always their end. Illyria was feared and beloved as few are. It was laid to death in the very depths of the well... until it disappeared a month ago."

"It vanished a _month_ ago and you didn't do anything earlier?" Vala said incredulously.

"Merely a statement on your crap abilities as a jailer," Spike said as Drogyn shot Vala another glare.

"Your friends like to talk," Drogyn said, pausing to look at Angel.

"I just met Vala yesterday, but she makes a good point," Angel said. "The man I remember couldn't be stolen from so easily."

"The tomb was not stolen; it disappeared," Drogyn explained, before he continued walking. "I believe it was pre-destined to as part of Illyria's escape plan."

"That still sounds like an excuse-" Vala began.

"And as for my not noticing," Drogyn continued, extinguishing his torch in a tub of water as they entered another chamber, "well, my charges are not few."

As they walked into the chamber on the other side of the door, Angel, Spike and Vala's eyes widened in shock at the sight. They were currently standing on a small wooden bridge, which appeared fairly sturdy, but the bridge was over a deep pit filled with sarcophagi like the one that infected Fred, extending down until the bottom of the pit vanished in a white light.

"Bloody Hell," Spike noted.

"How far does this go down?" Angel asked, staring at the vast pit below them.

"All the way," Drogyn said solemnly. "All the way through the Earth."

"So…" Vala said uncertainly, looking anxiously at the pit below them, clearly trying not to imagine how far down that went, "the coffin was teleported away from _here_ … and ended up in Los Angeles?"

"Illyria was a great power," Drogyn explained. "So great that, after millions of years dead, somewhere on this Earth, it still has acolytes."

"Bloody hell," Spike muttered. "There's always some nut, isn't there?"

"It's been freed," Drogyn said, looking at the three of them for confirmation. "The demon's essence."

"Yeah, it's been freed; why do you think we're here?" Spike asked, only to be met with a glare from Drogyn as he advanced towards the younger vampire. "And what's your favourite colour? What's your favourite song? Who's the goalkeeper for Manchester United? And how many fingers am I holdin' up?" He gave the mysterious man the finger before he continued. "You wanna kill me? Try. But I don't have time for your quirks."

"The power to draw back Illyria lies in there," Drogyn said as he turned back to look at Angel while indicating a door on the other side of the bridge, evidently deciding that being frustrated about the others asking questions wasn't worth the effort. "It requires a champion who has travelled from where it lies to where it belongs."

"You've got two of those right here," Angel said, looking back at Vala. "No offence; I just know that Spike's done something… Champion-esque, but I don't really know you…"

"No offence taken; I'm not sure I qualify either," Vala said, smiling in understanding at the dark-haired vampire.

"But I didn't know it was free," Drogyn said, shaking his head grimly, looking thoughtfully down into the pit before he looked back at the vampire. "If we bring the sarcophagus back to the well, it will draw Illyria out of your friend...and into every single person between here and there. It will become the mystical equivalent of airborne. It will claw into every soul in its path to keep from being trapped. Tens, maybe hundreds of thousands, will die in agony if you save her."

Vala couldn't believe that.

The only way to save Fred was to put _thousands_ of other people at risk…?

How powerful _was_ this thing?

"No," Angel said, walking to the edge of the bridge, lost for anything else to say.

"That's madness," Spike said, shaking his head in grim contemplation.

"This is a place of madness," Drogyn said solemnly. "I'll prepare the spell. Your choice."

With that solemn statement, Drogyn walked away, leaving Angel staring at the pit in silence while Spike and Vala tried to process what they'd just heard.

"Could we-?" Spike asked, looking sharply at Vala.

"Everything that could move Fred from Los Angeles to here that quickly is too far away to get here in time," Vala said, shaking her head regretfully. "Even if we could call the SGC from here, there's nothing we can do."

" _Damnit_ …" Spike groaned, staring up in exasperation, taking care to keep his voice low enough for his grandsire not to hear. "Where's the point in having a sodding spaceship if you can't use it when it's needed…?"


	6. Demise of the Soulless

"Right," Harmony said, grinning as she tightened the bonds around Knox's arms, the young scientist now tied to a chair in Angel's office and dazed from Gunn's earlier attack, Daniel and the vampire keeping a close eye on him. "That's him secure; you _sure_ you don't want-?"

" _No_ torture, Miss… Kendall," Sam said, looking pointedly at the female vampire. She might not know why these people had a vampire working for them when everything she'd learned from Spike made it clear that he and Angel were the only two vampires with souls, but if she wasn't actively killing anyone, Sam supposed that she could tolerate the woman's presence. "We just need you and Daniel to keep an eye on Mr Knox here while Mr Gunn and I… check out another lead."

"He won't go anywhere," Daniel said, reaching over to place a reassuring hand on Sam's shoulder, discreetly opening his coat to show her a small crucifix hidden in his pocket; even if they trusted Spike, the rest of SG-1 had resolved to take precautions against vampires after the encounter with Drusilla. "Go and find that doctor; the more we know, the better."

"Gotcha," Gunn said, his expression as he left the room leaving Sam uncertain if he was about to start crying or hitting something. Stuck for anything else to do, Sam shrugged slightly as she looked between Daniel and Harmony before hurrying after the supernaturally-enhanced lawyer. Nobody knew where the green-skinned demon apparently called Lorne was at the moment, and with Wesley keeping an eye on Fred in her room, those two were the only people Gunn and Sam felt remotely comfortable leaving with Knox (Gunn noting that, while he wasn't entirely comfortable with Harmony, he could be sure that she wasn't working with Knox and was more inclined to be loyal to Angel's team).

Sam wasn't entirely clear why this doctor they were going to visit would be working with Knox to restore Illyria, but Charles Gunn's reasoning seemed sound, and they didn't exactly have an abundance of options to choose from at this time. She and Daniel had secured Fred's soul and blood sample in the safe in their hotel room- protected by a glamour charm Angel had secured from the firm's archives that would apparently prevent anyone sensing the soul if they tried to find it- but it couldn't hurt to try and follow up every possible lead to make sure more Old Ones weren't on their way.

Entering the building's medical wing- Sam wouldn't think of it as an infirmary; the whole place just had an oppressive atmosphere that couldn't compare to the warmth she'd always felt when being treated by Janet or Doctor Lam back in the SGC- Sam followed her new associate until they arrived at their destination, where a thin, bald man wearing glasses and a white lab coat was sitting beside an operation chair, cleaning his instruments in a nearby bowl of water.

"Invasive procedures are always messy," he said with an exaggerated sigh. "Work like your operation was always my preference; so much less blood… it still makes me nauseous."

"Then this is gonna be an uncomfortable conversation," Gunn said grimly.

"In front of our… guest?" the doctor said, looking at Sam in surprise. "I would have expected you to keep quiet about this-"

"How he got here and why I'm with him aren't important right now," Sam said firmly; even if she had been remotely inclined to discuss her real past with anyone at this firm after everything Spike had told her about it, the less information this man had the more on-edge he'd be. "What _is_ important is that you know something about what's happening to Winifred Burkle, and you're going to tell us what that is."

"Ah yes, Miss Burkle," the doctor said, looking at Gunn in a contemplative manner. "How is she-?"

Gunn cut the older man's sentence short as he stepped forward and grabbed him by the lapels, practically pinning him to the patient's chair behind him.

"You wanna get real straight with me real fast," Gunn said firmly, Sam standing silently behind him; she was willing to let the other man handle this for the moment, given his greater experience in this field, but she would step in if things went too far.

"Of course," the doctor smiled, slightly nervously. "Customer's always right."

"Everything you know," Gunn said, stepping back and releasing his grip as he spoke, "or there won't be enough of you left to stitch back together, Frankenstein."

"The sarcophagus contains the essence of an old one," the doctor began, "a race of ancient demons dead and buried for millions of years in a place called the Deeper Well-"

"We already know that," Sam interjected.

"Why do you think I'm telling you?" the doctor said, a smirk on his face that reminded Sam of Ba'al at his most aggravating; she might have been tempted to strike him herself if Gunn didn't beat her to it by delivering a powerful blow to the man's stomach.

"How do we save Fred?" Gunn asked firmly. " _How_?!"

"You can't," the doctor said.

"I don't believe that," Gunn said, an edge of desperation in his voice as he addressed the other man. "You know a way to stop it if Angel doesn't find something; you _have_ to."

Sam didn't need her long experience of fighting against the Goa'uld, the Replicators and the Ori to know that Gunn was starting to get desperate- sometimes, as much as she hated to admit it, there _was_ no way to stop something completely- but she stayed silent; she knew too little about this new world to feel comfortable voicing that kind of opinion.

"Get the sarcophagus released from customs in exchange for making your cerebral alterations permanent," the doctor said dismissively. "That was the bargain and the extent of my involvement."

"Then take it back," Gunn said before Sam could say anything herself, leaving the astrophysicist to watch in silence as Gunn started crying in front of her. "Everything you put in my head, the law, all the knowledge, take it back. Everything… Take more, leave me a vegetable, I don't care; just… save her. Please… save her."

"There's nothing to be done," the doctor said, shaking his head with a solemn manner that Sam could tell he didn't feel at all. "Miss Burkle's soul will be consumed by the fires of resurrection; once her body dies, her soul will be lost and everything she is will be gone, forever."

As she took that news in, Sam was suddenly struck by the thought of just how lucky it was that she and Daniel had been here to suggest their plan. From what the doctor was saying, Fred's soul would only be attacked in the final stage of Illyria's 'resurrection', but if Daniel hadn't proposed extracting her soul to keep her safe, she would have been killed in a manner Sam didn't want to think about.

Being afraid of the possibility of nothing after death was one thing, but to know that there was something after death and also know that someone you knew would be _completely_ lost…

"For better or worse, you made a deal-" the doctor began saying, before Sam lashed out to punch the doctor in the face, sending him falling to the ground in a heap; she might know that Fred's soul was safe, but she didn't want Gunn to have to listen to anything else that man might have to say when she couldn't do anything to comfort him without compromising her or Angel's plans.

"Oh God…" Gunn said, staring at the fallen doctor before looking up at Sam. "I-"

" _You_ didn't do anything," Sam said firmly as she glared at Gunn. "This man and Knox manipulated you into helping them, but you couldn't have known what would happen and you did everything you could to stop it once you realised what this had to do with anything."

"I…" Gunn began, before he stopped and shook his head, unable to respond to her words. "So… what now?"

"For the moment, it's probably safe enough to keep him here," Sam said, indicating the room around her. "We can let the others know that we've found another potential source and… work out what to do next."

She didn't like confessing that she didn't know what to do, but she was pretty much stuck for options right now; this whole demon thing was _really_ out of her league…

* * *

  
Wesley had grown so used to Fred's stillness he could have almost believed that she was merely sleeping, if it weren't for the ever-present blue tint on her skin that made her look so ill. He had thought about trying to call the firm to see if any progress had been made, but the need to stay by Fred had stopped him leaving her; if anything had changed, he would have been informed instantly.

Suddenly overcome by the urge, Wesley leaned over to give Fred a brief kiss on her lips, but pulled back all too soon, unable to restrain his tears at how still she was; this wasn't _Fred_ , this was just her failing body… a body failing so rapidly that he couldn't even say goodbye to her…

No sooner had the thought crossed Wesley's mind then Fred suddenly lay still before him, her previous regular breathing coming to a halt.

The moment was so sudden that Wesley wouldn't have noticed it if he hadn't been paying such close attention to every last movement Fred made ever since he brought her to this room, but in his current state of mind, she might as well have just had her heart torn from her chest.

"No…" he said, shaking as he reached out to take her in his arms, sobbing into the shoulder of the limp form in front of him. "Please… please…"

As the body suddenly jerked out of his grasp, Wesley could only watch in shaken horror as Fred's eyes opened and changed to a crystal blue before a strange leg movement forced Fred to fall to the other side of the bed while kicking Wesley into the wall behind him. Winded at the impact, Wesley could only listen as Fred's body shook on the floor, unable to bring himself to watch…

Finally, the sound of shaking ended as Fred's body rapidly got to its feet, her brown hair now a royal blue, her eyes the same shade, and a blue tint to her skin that deepened around her hair.

"This will do," the thing that had been Fred said, a cool edge to her voice that proved her new identity more than anything else she could have said.

"Fred?" Wesley asked, his fragile hopes dashed as the thing in her body ignored him to examine a nearby mirror. "Illyria?"

"My name…" the creature that was apparently Illyria said, turning away from the mirror to glare at him. "You would presume to speak my name… because I have returned in the body of the human, you think you can speak to me? It's disgusting."

"Who is Winifred Burkle?" Wesley asked; so little was known about the Old Ones, there might still be something of Fred left in there…

"I thought the humans would have long died out by now," Illyria said, studying him disdainfully. "Instead, you've grown bold."

"So you don't know who Fred is," Wesley said, the words hurting him even as he was forced to resign himself to the facts; Fred was gone, and her killer was all that was left…

"Nor care," Illyria said dismissively. "Bleat at me no longer. We're done."

"Yes," Wesley said, reaching out for one of the axes that Fred had taken to keeping in her room; in their line of work, it was always best to have protection available. "We are…"

Lashing out with the axe, he struck Illyria in the back- it was a cowardly attack, but at least she didn't look as much like Fred at that angle- but failed to even cut her hair; the axe shattered with a loud clunk as it struck its target, but Illyria didn't even flinch.

"Oh," Illyria said, looking down at herself. "Now I remember… Winifred Burkle is the shell I'm in."

"She's the woman you killed," Wesley countered; no matter what it cost him, he wouldn't let this _thing_ be so dismissive of Fred…

"She is merely the first," Illyria said, tilting her head slightly as she looked at Wesley, as though she was looking for something before deciding not to worry about it.

"The first?" Wesley repeated.

"I can see from her memories that this world is filled with humans," Illyria said, looking out of the window for a moment before turning back to Wesley. "This body is pitiful and hollow compared to what I once was, but it shall suffice for my purposes. If humanity has overrun this world, then I have work to do."

Wesley couldn't even bring himself to care for the first few moments as Illyria walked out of the apartment while he sat on the bed, shaken at what he had witnessed.

Fred was _gone_ … and the only thing left of her didn't even acknowledge her existence…

* * *

  
The situation at Wolfram & Hart might be increasingly strange even by his standards, but after receiving Sam's text, Daniel was suddenly grateful for his presence there.

Sam might not have been able to tell him much, but she'd managed to send him a quick text message detailing what she and Gunn had learned about Illyria from the doctor; the knowledge that Fred's very _soul_ could have been destroyed…

It might have been slightly hypocritical after what they'd done to the Ori, but Daniel didn't think that the Sangraal had actually _destroyed_ the Ori, but merely weakened them to appoint where they weren't a threat; the prospect of something so devastating that it could destroy someone's soul…

If he hadn't come up with the idea of extracting Fred's soul in time, she would have died in the most complete manner he had ever heard of.

"Can we torture him yet?" Harmony asked, looking eagerly at Knox.

" _No_ ," Daniel said, trying not to show how unnerved he was at the idea of what looked like the stereotypical California blonde being that enthusiastic about torturing someone; if she was the standard vampire, everything Spike had told him suggested that she didn't have an actual conscience, so he should just focus on the fact that she wasn't interested in attacking him and take it all from there.

"Can we-?" Harmony began again.

"Feel free to get started," Gunn said as he walked into the room, a cold glare on his face as he stared at Knox, Sam close behind him. "Just so long as I get dibs on the good bits; this is _personal_ …"

"What is?" Wesley asked, walking into the office after the other two. "Is Angel-?"

"Not back yet," Daniel said, deciding to take up the explanation for the others. "We found out that Knox here was part of the plan to resurrect Illyria-"

"He's _what_?" Wesley said, looking sharply at Daniel before looking at Gunn. "Why didn't you-?"

"All we knew before now was that he was involved; we were following up a couple of leads to see if there was anything else he could give us before we told anyone else," Sam clarified, stepping up before Gunn could say anything he might regret later. "He's part of some kind of cult that worships Illyria and were making arrangements for her resurrection; he hasn't had time to tell us anything about how to stop it-"

"Too late," Wesley interjected, his expression now far grimmer as he looked at the rest of the room. "She's gone."

"Gone?" Harmony repeated, even as the rest of the team stared solemnly at Wesley, aware that there was nothing else to be said.

Even if Sam and Daniel had managed to save Fred's soul, they had failed to save a life from a terrible fate…

The sound of giggling from behind prompted them to turn around, glaring at Knox as he chuckled in his chair.

"I'm sorry," he said, his mocking tone suggesting that they were all missing some point that only he could see. "It's just… um, it's not what you think. It- it's- it's beautiful…"

"It's a _parasite_ ," Daniel said, glaring at Knox. "Do you really think that Illyria will place any additional value on your life over ours? The Old Ones were monsters; why should they care about you?"

"I am her Qwa'ha Xahn-" Knox began.

"Does that even _mean_ anything?" Sam interjected. "Daniel and I have dealt with beings who _believed_ they were gods for years, and they'd all be perfectly comfortable sacrificing their human followers-"

"There isn't _time_ for this!" Gunn yelled, glaring over at Sam before he looked at Wesley. "What the hell actually _happened_ to her?"

"The infection… Illyria… consumed her," Wesley said, clearing finding it difficult to discuss this. "Took over her body."

"And her soul," Gunn said.

"What?" Wesley said, looking at Gunn in new horror.

"Mr Gunn and I… talked with this doctor who was working with Knox," Sam said, suddenly uncertain how to refer to the other man. "He revealed that…"

"Fred's soul was consumed when she was used to resurrect Illyria," Gunn cut in, body shaking with barely-repressed tears. "She's gone."

"Wait, I'm confused," Harmony put in. "It looks like Fred, but it's not?"

"She's so much more than that now," Knox said, a fanatical tone of worship to his voice that reminded Sam and Daniel of some of the more fanatical Jaffa they'd faced over the years, to say nothing of their more recent clashes with the Ori. "Beyond flesh. Beyond perfection. I loved Fred. I really did… She had a warmth that took you in and held you until everything cold and distant melted away. She was the most beautiful, perfect woman I ever met. That's why I chose her. She's the only one that was worthy."

Sam wasn't sure if she should pity Knox's insanity or hit him for being so completely warped, but she was spared from having to think about that when Angel, Spike and Vala stepped into the office, all three looking grimly at the others.

"Fred?" Angel asked, focusing on Wesley.

"Gone," the other man replied, clearly not trusting himself to say more.

"OK," the older vampire said, briefly glancing over at Sam and Daniel before he addressed his team as a whole. "First step; get Knox locked up, and then work out where Illyria's going next."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before anyone asks, Fred's soul _is_ safe; the only thing that Illyria's absorbed are her memories, which are still present in her body and should fulfil the original role of giving Illyria access to some of Fred's experiences


	7. Awaken the Army of Doom

Angel wasn't sure what was harder; having to go up against something that appeared to be Winifred Burkle while incapable of being her by its very nature even if it wanted to, or having to act as though he believed that Fred was gone even if he knew otherwise (He might be putting an unusual amount of faith in people he'd only just met, but he knew better than most vampires what science could accomplish these days, and they'd had no reason to suggest cloning as an option unless they could really do it).

Seeing Lorne walk out because of his own grief hadn't been easy when he'd known there was a chance that their friend could return, but in a perverse way, he was glad that things had turned out as they had. The trip to the Deeper Well may have accomplished nothing more than confirming where the sarcophagus came from, but he could at least be sure that he'd done everything he could to save Fred's original body while leaving enough evidence to convince the Partners that he hadn't been that serious later on.

Gunn's confession that he'd played a part in bringing the sarcophagus into the building had been a shock, but Spike's friend Sam- Angel wished he had time to quiz her and her friends for more details; he still found it hard to imagine Spike working for anybody, let alone the government- had assured them that she had been with Gunn ever since he learned what had happened, and was satisfied that he had been completely ignorant of what he had signed and had done everything he could to make up for his mistake.

In a perverse way, it had been a relief when Gunn revealed that the doctor had told him that Fred's soul would have been destroyed resurrecting Illyria; Wesley might have fallen into a bitter depression, but at least Angel wouldn't have to worry about trying to follow up on possible sources that he couldn't allow to succeed even if they were capable of doing anything. He was aware that he'd need to find some way to get a message to Willow about what had happened later on- if she could restore his soul, she was the best candidate to see about 'transferring' Fred's extracted soul into the clone Spike's friends had claimed they could create- but he'd worry about that once Illyria had been dealt with and there was actually a new body for Fred's soul to inhabit.

It was just frustrating that the first attempt to confront Illyria had gone so badly; she'd rescued Knox with minimal effort, retrieved some kind of armour from her sarcophagus, and then practically walked past an entire division of Wolfram & Hart's special forces operatives after throwing him out the window with embarrassing ease. Angel had been forced to have Daniel get some of the blood supplies from the firm's canteen to help him get back to fighting strength once he'd staggered back into the building after hitting the ground, and his bones were still repairing themselves, but if he was the worst casualty so far he supposed that he should count himself lucky, particularly if they were correct about her theory that she could alter time (Superspeed wouldn't be practical on its own if she was taking Knox along for the ride). Wesley had managed to break a crystal off the sarcophagus that had originally housed Illyria's essence in the hope that it might turn out to be useful later, and Sam was testing it in the lab, but with Gunn brooding over his own guilt in his office, Angel's 'team' at the moment consisted of a group of relative strangers, a Spike who was acting significantly out-of-character in a manner that Angel actually rather liked, and an ex-Watcher with grief issues.

"Anything?" he asked as he walked into his office, looking over at where Daniel was studying one of Wesley's texts; Spike and Vala were interrogating the doctor who'd been involved in getting the sarcophagus sent through customs.

"Well, a few points of academic interest, but nothing specifically useful yet," Daniel replied. "I can at least confirm that Knox's roles as 'Qwa'ha Xahn' means that he basically serves as Illyria's high priest and guide in this new world- there's some stuff about him having to literally place sacraments _inside_ himself to identify himself to her- and Illyria is meant to have some degree of control over time when her powers are at their peak, but I'm having trouble finding anything about…"

He turned over another page, and his eyes widened as he took in what was before him. "Oh."

"Oh?" Angel repeated, looking sharply at the archaeologist. "What's 'oh'?"

"Vahla ha'nesh."

"Which is…?"

"This," Daniel said, turning the book around to reveal a page dominated by a drawing of a temple with a statue inside. The statue was clearly enormous, as tall as the temple's ceiling, with four arms and a body consisting of snake-like creatures coiled around a torso, with dozens of snake-tails where feet should be and two bladed weapons in what could be hands, with thousands of dots in the background on the temple floor. "It's Illyria's temple, where she was meant to be fully resurrected; from what I can translate, that thing in the middle is… well, it's her real body."

"Ah," Angel said, grimly studying the picture.

There might not be a real sense of scale for the image, but if that temple was anything like some of the temples he'd seen in the past, it was going to be _really_ big…

"And the things around it?" he asked.

"Her… 'army of doom'," Daniel said, squinting slightly at the text. "Someone actually called themselves that?"

"Demons tend to be very literal when it comes to names," Angel clarified. "Does it say anything about where it is?"

"Well, Sam told me that Knox mentioned that the temple is somewhere in this area, so given what we're speculating regarding Illyria's powers, I'm assuming that it's somehow protected so that only her temporal manipulation abilities can _open_ the temple; we just need to work out where that opening _is_ …" Daniel said, shaking his head as he studied the text.

"See what you can find," Angel said, nodding briefly at the archaeologist before he headed for the door of his office. "I'm off to the lab; maybe we can figure out some other way to track this thing…"

* * *

  
With a specific target, it didn't take them long to find what they were looking for. Based on analysis of the energies in Illyria's sarcophagus, Sam was able to use some of the firm's equipment to locate the one location in Los Angeles that was consistently generating a similar form of magical energy- an old bank on the other side of the city- allowing Angel, Wesley, Spike and Spike's friends to get them there in a matter of minutes.

Angel wasn't entirely sure about relying on this group against Illyria, but the firm's security team had already proven inadequate and Gunn and Lorne were in no psychological state to engage something like Illyria in battle, so he was just going to have to hope that these people could handle themselves against this kind of threat; military training was good, but something like Illyria wasn't exactly the kind of thing the average soldier could handle, and he was fairly sure they'd have told him if they were with the Initiative…

Parking a short distance away from the temple's location to increase their stealth factor, the six hurried towards their destination, Spike's three unusual new friends discreetly arming themselves with some kind of strange black thing that put Angel in mind of a gun disguised as a snake, as well as more conventional weapons, while the two vampires carried swords; Angel didn't know what Wesley had come with, but he trusted that his friend would be prepared. As they entered the shattered bank door, they immediately saw Knox standing up from a location in the middle of the room, with Illyria, clad in red-and-brown leather with long blue-brown hair, standing solemnly behind him.

"Showtime," Knox said, turning back to his god with a smile.

"Any seats left?" Spike asked, as their two foes turned to look at the new arrivals, Illyria with her usual subtle sneer and Knox with a kind of dazed incredulity.

"If not, we could just stand in the back," Angel added; he wasn't sure what Knox had just done, but he was guessing it would be best to stop Illyria before she could do anything more.

"Guys," Knox said, still sounding frustratingly casual about everything, as though Illyria's victory was so inevitable he was amazed nobody else could see it, "you should scan the headlines here; you can't win this."

"Then we all die trying," Wesley said grimly.

"Why?" Illyria asked, cocking her head as she looked at him.

"You want the short version?" Angel asked, staring coldly at the Old One. "Let's start with you walking around looking like the woman you murdered."

"You believe your actions will restore her?" Illyria asked.

"No," Angel replied; he could at least be honest about that, if nothing else.

"Yet you seek a confrontation you cannot win."

"What you're trying to do," Angel said, walking carefully towards the reborn Old One to ensure she understood what he was saying, "raise your army, reclaim your world… innocent people would die. Like Fred. I can't let that happen."

"You are the protector of these creatures?" Illyria asked.

" _All_ of us," Vala affirmed from behind him (Angel decided not to glare at her for interrupting; after the way she'd handled herself at the entrance to the Well, he at least knew that she could hold her weight in a fight).

"You'd fight for their lives?" Illyria continued.

"Yes," Angel said.

"Even this one?" Illyria asked, looking over at Knox.

"Is that an issue?" Knox asked, his old confidence faltering in the face of this statement. "Is my life in peril, boss? King?"

"You're about as low as it gets, Knox, but you're a part of humanity," Angel said (He wondered if Illyria could be considered a 'king' in a female body, but it wasn't worth wondering about that kind of thing when facing these stakes). "That isn't always pretty, but it's a hell of a lot better than what came before. And if it comes down to a choice between you and him, then yes, I would fight for his life, just like any other human's. Because that's what people do. That's what makes us-"

A gunshot interrupted Angel's statement, followed by Knox glancing down at his now-bleeding chest for a moment before he collapsed, a bullet fired directly into his heart by Wesley.

"Were you even listening?" Angel asked, looking at his old friend in frustration.

He hadn't exactly liked Knox that much either- Fred was only still even potentially alive because of Spike's friends, and the guy had seemed weird even before Angel had learned he was a bad guy- but he'd been trying to make a point…

"You have destroyed my Qwa'ha Xahn," Illyria said, glaring at the group.

"Well… it's not like he was entirely unprovoked," Vala pointed out, receiving a glare from the other two humans for that comment.

"It offends me," Illyria said, regaining her composure as she glared at him, "that you think he matters."

"You're right," Angel acknowledged. "He's not the problem here; you are."

With that said, he swung his sword at Illyria, only for the Old One to neatly duck under the blow with a move that would have made modern gymnasts envious. As she kicked Angel across the room, Sam, Daniel and Vala all fired their strange weapons at the powerful demon, shooting some kind of purple energy, but the blasts accomplished nothing more than sending Illyria staggering backwards for a few moments.

As Illyria turned towards the three SG-1 members, Spike charged forward to intercept her, only to be punched in the chest with such force that he was sent flying into the wall behind him. Wesley tried to fire at Illyria directly, but she simply knocked him down with Knox's corpse, grabbing Vala as she attempted to charge at Illyria with the hand device and hurling her into Daniel. As Sam fired another couple of blasts from her weapon at the Old One, Angel got back to his feet and kicked Illyria in the back of the head, trying to stab her with a shorter blade he'd brought along for more close-quarter combat, but the dagger simply fractured against Illyria's back without penetrating it; Angel couldn't tell if that was because of Illyria's magic or something in the suit, but either way he was down a weapon.

Returning to his sword, Angel lashed out at Illyria as Spike charged in to do the same, the two vampires swiping at Illyria with their swords, only for her to duck under the attack once again. As they tried to attack her with a downward swipe of their swords, Illyria reached up and grabbed their blades in her bare hands, swinging in a circle to throw both vampires into the walls on either side of her.

"Unimpressive," Illyria said, swinging her hand as Angel looked up at her, reaching into his pocket for the crystal Wesley had pulled off the sarcophagus earlier as the thing in Fred's body began to blur…

With the crystal clutched in his hand, Illyria seemed to slow down even as some kind of portal became visible behind her; the rest of his team were still out of action for the moment, but he could at least try and confront Illyria now. Heading towards the portal, Angel waited until Illyria had turned to face him, and then smiled dismissively at the thing using Fred's corpse.

"What's the rush?" he asked, following that query up with a punch to the face that sent Illyria flying backwards, time restoring to normal around them as his opponent struck the wall.

"How?" Illyria asked, the rest of the team looking at the shifted positions in surprise.

"From your sarcophagus," Angel explained, displaying the crystal to Illyria. "It's connected to you; I'm connected to it."

"Sneaky," Illyria said, smiling almost approvingly at him before she kicked out at his legs, knocking him to the ground before he could get to safety. Spike's own attempt to charge met with failure as Illyria punched him in the gut and sent him flying before she got to her feet and waved her hands, marching towards a rapidly-opening portal. Wesley marched after her, weapons firing, and the ex-Watcher was through the portal after the Old One before any of the others could react. Daniel and Sam had started to run after Wesley when the portal vanished, leaving the two vampires and three humans looking anxiously at each other.

"So… what now?" Vala asked, after a moment's pause. "Open that thing up again?"

" _How_?" Sam asked. "I didn't even see what he did to open it _now_ ; how are we meant to repeat it?"

"Nothing I read said _anything_ about how to open the temple; I wouldn't even know where to start!" Daniel said, looking apologetically over at Angel. "There are too many rules about how magic works, and I just have a rather intensive crash course-"

Daniel's apology was interrupted when the very portal he was discussing opened up once again, releasing a grim-faced Wesley as he looked at the five of them.

"Wes?" Angel said, looking at the Watcher in confusion. "What-?"

"Her army had all died off while waiting for her," Wesley explained.

"They _died_?" Vala repeated in surprise. "What kind of demon army _dies out_ while it's waiting for its god?"

"Probably not the kind of thing we should be worrying about right now, Val," Spike said, smiling over at the dark-haired woman before he shrugged awkwardly at Wesley. "Sorry 'bout that; you know how it is the first few weeks in this wacky world o' ours…"

"Indeed," Wesley said, his expression cold as he walked out of the building and back towards the car, leaving Angel to look awkwardly at Spike's friends.

"Uh… I'm sorry about Wes," he said at last, stuck for anything better to say in his friend's defence right now. "He's… been through a lot…"

"It's all right," Daniel said, nodding at Angel in understanding. "These things happen."

"So… what about Illyria?" Vala asked. "Should we-?"

"With her army gone, she's… well, she's not as great a threat as she could be," Angel interrupted. "We can see about closing off that portal to her temple, but even with her power, there's only so much that she can do on her own; we can figure something out, but you should... probably be on your way before you attract too much attention."

"You're bootin' us out?" Spike said, looking at his grandsire in surprise.

"I'm suggesting you leave before Illyria decides to focus on you," Angel clarified. "Right now, if she only has Fred's memories, she's more inclined to focus on us as a potential threat, but if you're here as well-"

"It runs the risk of dividing her attention away from you and making it harder to predict what she'll do," Sam finished for him, nodding at the vampire in solemn understanding. "Just so long as you let us know if you… need us for anything."

"Sure thing," Angel said, nodding back at Sam before he shook Daniel's hand. "Thanks for your help; just… don't forget to check in with the right people."

"We'll take every precaution," Daniel assured him in return. Assured that the archaeologist understood his deeper meaning, Angel simply nodded at Vala and Sam before he turned his attention to Spike.

"So," he said, looking uncertainly at his grandchilde, "should I-?"

"No," Spike said firmly.

"You don't even-" Angel began.

"You knowing's more than enough; I'm not going to get dragged back into the fight because Buffy's lot find out that I'm back and become convinced that they need to 'rescue' me from anything," Spike said firmly. "I'll chip in if I'm needed, but I'm making a difference in my new life as well; that's what matters most right now."

"We'll… see if we can make arrangements to tell you the truth about what we do once we've dealt with things," Sam said, before Angel could say anything. "With everything you've told us… some ignorance is probably a good thing."

"Sure thing," Angel said, nodding in acceptance; if he was going to keep his friends in the dark about what had happened to Fred in particular, it was only fair that he have some things kept from him in return.

"Just… call us if you need any help," Daniel said, looking at Angel in sympathetic understanding, as he pulled out a card and handed it to the other vampire. "We might not use magic ourselves, but we have a… few other secrets that might surprise you."

"I'll keep that in mind," Angel said, pocketing the card and smiling over at Spike. "Whatever else happens, Spike… it's good to see you've moved on."

"Glad I'm not goin' after your girl any more?"

"Glad you've found somewhere where you can be you rather than trying to be me."

The tone was their usual sarcastic banter, but underneath it, Angel knew that he and Spike both acknowledged the deeper sentiment behind it; he was genuinely glad that his grandchilde had found a life outside of his past efforts to basically become Angel.

As the four of them walked off in the opposite direction, Angel turned around and headed back to the car that had brought them here; he had faith that Spike's new team had a plan.

In a perverse way, he was almost glad for Wesley's grief right now; at least it would save the ex-Watcher from asking too many questions about where Spike and the others had gone until he had a clearer plan about how he was going to use Fred's 'death'…


	8. Meet the Burkles

It had barely been a day since they'd departed Los Angeles, and Daniel couldn't believe just how much his life had been changed.

He'd known since meeting Spike and his time sharing a body with Merlin that magic was real, but it was something else entirely to witness people to whom magic and demons were as much a part of their daily lives as the Stargate and aliens were for him. Working with one vampire was very different from having to fight alongside two vampires and a man who was basically a warlock to stop an ancient demon being reborn, even if he and Sam had managed to save a life through their methods while they were there.

Once they'd returned to Colorado, it had actually been rather interesting to see how their friends responded to their news, although Spike and Vala had been relieved to learn that they had managed to save Fred after everything else that they had done. General Landry had been notably disturbed at the news that there was an ancient demon now active in Los Angeles, but he had accepted Spike's assurances that Angel and his friends could handle the situation, and assured them that he wouldn't make any reference to Illyria to the IOA; if nothing else, since the four of them had technically been on vacation during their time in Los Angeles, no reports needed to be filled out. Mitchell and Teal'c, by contrast, had each just expressed their regret that they hadn't been there to help their friends in such an interesting private mission, and had also been fascinated to learn more about Spike's old acquaintances.

Talking of Spike's friends, reports from Los Angeles had actually been more positive than they'd expected. The day after they'd left Los Angeles, Angel had called them to reveal that Illyria had returned to the Wolfram & Hart building, asking if Wesley could serve as her guide now that she had lost her army and her Qwa'ha Xahn. Apparently, while consuming Fred's body and internal organs, she had absorbed enough energy from Fred's brain to retain at least some of her memories, leaving Illyria with a certain attachment to the people and places that had been particularly dear to Fred out of a lack of anywhere to go on her own. She still had enough power to be a threat on her own, but without her army to help her enforce that power, and overwhelmed by the uncertainty of her new state of being, she seemed to be content to remain where she was and learn more about how to exist in this world rather than going on any kind of mad rampage.

Daniel wasn't entirely sure if he was comfortable with that, but considering that demons were far from his area of expertise, he was just going to have to trust that Angel could keep an eye on things and step in if the situation with Illyria seemed like it was about to get out of hand.

Right now, he and Vala had a more personal matter to deal with; with Sam having returned to the SGC to ensure that the early stages of their attempts to clone Fred's body went well, and Spike unable to make this trip as the modified shield device was reserved for SGC-related business, it had fallen to the two of them to visit the Burkles and tell them what had happened. Angel had assured them that Winifred's parents could be trusted to keep the secret, and they lived far enough away from Los Angeles that it was unlikely that Wolfram & Hart's Senior partners would be keeping an eye on them, particularly when it had been two years since they last visited Angel's team.

"This is it?" Vala asked, glancing over at Daniel as they came to a halt outside the house that they had identified as the Burkles' from Angel's information, a simple white wooden design with a large garden and a small porch, the overall impression practically screaming 'stereotypical Texas' to Daniel. "It seems a bit…"

"Everyone has their own tastes," Daniel said, looking briefly at Vala before he parked the car and got out; he didn't get the appeal of the design himself, preferring something with a sturdier history when looking for houses himself, but he didn't have the time to get drawn into a conversation about it. "Come on; let's get this handed over."

Pausing only to pick up the briefcase that they had chosen to hide Fred's soul in, Daniel and Vala headed for the house, knocking on the door and waiting until it was answered by a woman in her mid-fifties with shoulder-length brown hair, dressed in a loose light brown dress with what looked like flowers on it.

"Yes?" she asked, looking curiously at them.

"Mrs Patricia Burkle?" Daniel asked. "My name is Doctor Daniel Jackson, and this is my colleague, Vala Mal Doran; we're… acquainted with Angel."

"Angel?" the older woman said, smiling gratefully at the archaeologist. "You work with my daughter?"

"In a… manner of speaking," Daniel said. "This is a bit of an awkward conversation; is your husband in?"

"Of course," the woman said, stepping aside to let Daniel and Vala inside, showing them into a lounge area just to the side of the door, where a slightly overweight man in glasses and a checked shirt was sitting on a couch, apparently having turned off the television when he heard the door open.

"Roger," the woman said, confirming the other man's identity, "these people work with Winifred; they wanted to talk with us."

"Really?" the man said, smiling at the new arrivals. "Who are you?"

"Doctor Daniel Jackson, and this is Vala Mal Doran," Daniel said, smiling politely at the Burkles before he assumed a grimmer expression. "I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, but… technically, your daughter died two days ago."

"What?" Roger said, looking briefly shocked before his expression shifted to confusion as he processed what Daniel had told him. "She… she _technically_ died?"

"That's… where it gets complicated," Daniel continued, grateful that the two seemed willing to hear him out as he sat down opposite them. "Your daughter was essentially… possessed by the spirit of a particularly ancient demon, which consumed her body to use as its vessel in this world, but, before it progressed too far, we were able to… well…"

"We extracted her soul and put it in here," Vala finished for him, reaching over to open the briefcase and hold out the jar containing Fred's soul.

"Her… soul?" Trish repeated, looking at the jar in shock. "You… we… that's Winifred's _soul_?"

"It was the only thing we could try," Daniel explained, suddenly struck by the awkwardness of this whole situation as he placed the jar on the table in front of them. "Her body was consumed by the demon, but we extracted her soul before the infection could attack her on that level-"

"This thing could have attacked her _soul_?" Roger interjected, glaring at the archaeologist. "How could that Angel fellow have-?"

"Nobody was expecting something like this, and Angel did everything he could to try and save her body once he realised what was happening," Daniel interjected; he doubted that these people would react well to learning where their daughter was currently working, given what Angel had told him about the firm's past, but as much as he disliked lying, right now it was more important to reassure them by focusing on the relevant facts. "The point is that we wanted to let you know in person that Fred's going to be fine; we've taken samples of her DNA from before the infection set in, and my team are cloning a new body for her."

"Cloning?" Trish repeated, looking at Daniel in surprise. "You're creating a _clone_ of my daughter?"

"Only in the sense that it won't be her original body; we're going to put her soul _in_ the clone once it's ready," Daniel explained reassuringly; he'd always trusted that Thor and the other Asgard were the same people when clones were introduced, and he didn't particularly care which Ba'al was the original, but at least now he could reassure the Burkles with absolute certainty. "My girlfriend estimates that it should take a couple of months for the clone to be fully grown to a point that will allow Fred's soul to be safely transferred to her new body, but since we don't need to worry about giving it any memories, it should be simple enough to put her soul in there once it's ready."

"We've seen people use this equipment before, and it works," Vala interjected with a smile. "Actually, what we're doing now is far easier as the clone doesn't need to get any memories; everything Fred was is still in that soul, so she'll be back to normal once she's… well, normal again."

"I… see," Roger said, looking awkwardly at the jar before he looked back at Daniel and Vala. "So… why are you here?"

"We needed somewhere safe to keep her soul until her body's ready," Daniel explained. "Angel has things to deal with that might sense the presence of a soul and try to use it, and we… well, we just thought that it would be safer to leave her soul with you until the new body's ready."

"So… we just… take this?" Roger asked, looking uncertainly at the jar. "I mean, I knew that Winifred was dealing with strange things, but this is a _soul_ …"

"Look, it's all going to be fine; nobody would think to look for this here, so you just need to put it somewhere where nobody will stumble across it, and we'll get back in touch when her new body's ready," Daniel said reassuringly, as he put the jar back in the briefcase and handed it over to Fred's mother, along with a card that he'd quickly scrawled his and Sam's numbers on to. "Just call either of those numbers if you need any help; things with Angel are… well, it's easier for your daughter if nobody there knows what happened to her right now."

"I… see," Trish said, looking awkwardly at the card for a moment before she looked back at Daniel. "And… you promise she'll be safe?"

"We… have experience with the technology we're using; your daughter's new body will be fine," Daniel said, deciding to focus on the essentials over anything else. "Like I said, Angel just felt that this would be the safest place to leave her soul until her body's ready; we'll let you know when she can be restored as soon as we can."

"Of… well, thank you," Trish said, nodding awkwardly at the archaeologist as she put the card in her pocket while her husband picked up the briefcase. "I just… I knew it was dangerous, but…"

"Fred knew the risks in her line of work, Mrs Burkle," Daniel said, looking reassuringly at the older woman; he hadn't delivered many of these moments when the relatives of a deceased soldier had to be told that their relative was gone, but he'd been through enough to have some idea of what to say. "But she also knew that she was working with people who would do everything in their power to keep her safe… and I promise you, we _are_ doing everything we can to bring her back."

For a moment, the Burkles just exchanged glances with each other, clearly uncomfortable with the situation Daniel had just described, before they each nodded in agreement and turned back to face the archaeologist.

"Well," Roger said, looking at Daniel with an awkward smile, "it's a crazy old story, but I heard crazier when we learned what happened to our little girl; if you say this thing has her soul in it, we'll keep it safe until you've got its new home ready."

"Thank you," Daniel said, nodding back at them gratefully.

They still needed time to complete the clone, but at least now he wouldn't have to worry about keeping Fred's soul safe on top of everything else; Sam had expressed concern that someone might want the soul analysed if it was kept in the SGC, but if they handed it on to someone else they could at least legitimately say that it had been entrusted to someone else.

They might have dealt with the Goa'uld, but clearly things weren't going to get that much easier for Earth.

Daniel was just grateful he didn't have to deal with this kind of threat on a full-time basis; spending time with Spike was more than enough supernatural activity in his life as far as he was concerned…


	9. Distorted Timelines

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In terms of timing, this chapter takes place approximately between what would have been the events of 'Underneath' and 'Origin' in the original continuity of _Angel_ ; I'll cover the essential details of what happened in 'Underneath' before we get into the main plot

Sitting in his office, Angel wondered how things had become so difficult ever since he'd faked Fred's death.

Making the decision to keep the truth from Wesley had been simultaneously the easiest and hardest call he'd ever had to make; he hated seeing Wesley in such obvious pain at Fred's loss, but at the same time it helped to make things more convincing. It sucked having to let Wesley grieve when he knew that he could spare his friend that pain, but it would certainly prevent the Partners or the Circle- wherever they were- from thinking that he actually had 'faked' Fred's death. He'd received a letter from Doctor Jackson a couple of days ago confirming that Fred's soul had been left with her parents and they were making good progress with cloning her new body, but he couldn't risk checking in with them too often in case he tipped the Partners of as to his own agenda.

His current issues with the Partners went far beyond the need to keep Fred's current status a secret, given his ignorance of their long-term agenda now that he had taken control of Wolfram & Hart. He'd tried to take a new approach by rescuing Lindsey from the hell dimension he'd been trapped in after he tried to release that thing from the basement, but that had left him with nothing more than a reinforced sense of his own uselessness, facing the fact that everything he'd done lately had been playing into the Partners' plans and unable to change tracks. With Lorne feeling useless in the face of their new discoveries and Gunn and Wesley in a state of depression, Angel was almost wishing that Spike had decided to stick around for a while; at least he would have felt like he had some degree of control here, rather than having to take responsibility for everything.

He hated to admit it, but when Gunn had put on that amulet to take Lindsey's place in that prison dimension, Angel had briefly been tempted to let Gunn go along with his obvious desire to punish himself. Even if he couldn't guarantee being able to rescue Gunn later, it might have made his friend feel better about himself, and he knew from experience that nobody could make you stop blaming yourself for something even if you logically couldn't have been fully responsible for what you were doing…

In the end, however, he hadn't done it; the thought of what Fred would think of that news when she came back had made him try something else, refusing to let the risk he had taken to save Fred be cheapened by someone else sacrificing themselves for something they hadn't even technically done. With the demon looking away as Gunn prepared to assume his new role in the scenario, Angel had dragged Gunn to stand behind the demon and then transferred the amulet from Gunn to the creature before it could react, the four of them subsequently leaving the prison dimension so that the demon could cut out its own heart. Gunn had initially resented Angel making decisions for him, but he seemed to be willing to accept the situation, even if he still wasn't ready to take the lead in any negotiations yet; Gunn might have to deal with a lot of grief, but he had acknowledged Angel's argument that giving up like that would have made Fred's death even more senseless.

The addition of Marcus Hamilton to the equation as their new liaison made things more complicated, but Angel had faith that he could handle it; the man might be more direct than Eve, but at the same time he at least had no agenda other than his loyalty to the Partners, which meant that Angel could predict him so long as he didn't give the guy a reasons to suspect his ulterior agenda. With Eve's duties handed over, the Partners appeared to be content to let Angel take custody of Eve and Lindsey wherever he wanted to keep them so long as he continued his responsibilities as head of the firm, which actually gave him some time to focus on Illyria now that business had quietened down.

Unfortunately, while assessing Illyria's limits was an important detail he had to attend to, his attempts to test her so far had met with failure as she seemed to be losing her grip of her own abilities. She was definitely stronger than him in a straight fight, but once he adjusted for that her actual combat skills were sketchy, most likely due to her relative inexperience of using her new body, and the time-bending skills she'd demonstrated in his first fight with her didn't seem to be in use much any more.

Wesley had said that he was working on something to deal with the problem of Illyria's powers, but Angel wasn't sure how optimistic he should be about that; magic and Old Ones didn't interact well given their sheer power, and technology had always been Fred's forte even if Wesley had probably picked up some ideas over the years.

God, he'd managed to save the life of the first person who'd trusted him without reservation even after seeing him at his worst, and things were _still_ messed-up…

"You will speak to me," Illyria said, walking impatiently into Angel's office, looking at him with her usual imperious glare. For a moment, Angel was tempted to ignore her and try and continue his work, but the thought of what she could do if nobody responded to her convinced him that it would be best to go along with it considering her questionable power levels right now.

"All right," he said, standing up from the desk and looking at her in exasperation. "What's wrong now?"

"What is it?" Illyria asked. "Poison? Magicks? It impresses me, the power of it. Whatever you've done, it can't save you. To do anything but bow to my will is absurd, yet you conspire-"

"We haven't done anything to you," Angel said, as Illyria suddenly doubled over, clutching her stomach in pain; he almost moved to ask what was wrong before the memory of what this thing was and what it had done ended his concern.

"Jealous," Illyria said, glaring up at him. "Plankton envying the ocean that holds them."

"Yeah, that's great," Angel said, uninterested in further rants. "Listen, I got things-"

"Ridiculous apes!" Illyria yelled, grabbing him by the lapels and hauling him into the air. "My death won't prevent your dying. What have you done to me?!"

"Get your damn hands off-" Angel began, before Illyria let out another scream, everything around him seemed to blur-

* * *

  
He was standing in Wesley's office, in front of his friend's desk, the ex-Watcher looking at Angel and Illyria in surprise.

"Angel?" Wesley said, looking at him in surprise. "Where did you come from?"

"What the hell did you do to me?" Angel said, focusing on the demon in Fred's body.

"You weren't here before!" Illyria said, looking at him in the closest thing to anxiety he'd ever seen her express.

"What just happened?" Wesley asked, voicing Angel's own confusion.

"An aberration in the timeline," Illyria said, obviously talking to herself as Angel and Wesley could only exchange confused glances. "It wasn't like this-"

Everything blurred around Angel once again-

* * *

  
He was standing in the middle of the training room they had set aside for Illyria while they were trying to test her, Illyria sitting on the floor staring at the wall.

"Damn it!" Angel yelled, looking around himself. "What the hell is going on here?"

"You followed me," Illyria said, standing up to glare at him. "You've been swept up in my wake… how did you worms accomplish this?"

"We didn't," Angel said automatically before he registered what she was saying. "We- accomplish what?"

"You ripped me out of linear progression, tore my time line into shreds, and stitched it back together out of sequence," Illyria continued.

"Are you kidding?!" Angel said, unable to believe what he was hearing; was Illyria so ignorant of the modern world that she really thought they could _do_ something like that?

"You caged me in this fractured time frame, in moments that repeat themselves over and over without deviation," Illyria continued. "Is it of your sciences? How do you unweave time in this way?"

"This isn't us," Angel protested. "We don't have the power to do-"

He was cut off as Illyria punched him in the face, sending him flying across the room into the wall with such force that he felt it crack as he hit the floor, fighting to regain focus as Illyria continued talking.

"Do you know what you were when I was young?" the former god said. "You were the muck at our feet. We called you 'the ooze that eats itself'. You were pretty at night. You sparkled, and you _stank_. You still stink of it-!"

"Will you just shut _up_ for once?!" Angel yelled, frustrated beyond the limits of his patience with her rants as he got back to his feet.

"What?" Illyria asked, clearly bemused at the idea that anyone could interrupt her.

"My God, the _speechifying_!" Angel groaned as he paced towards her. "Has it ever occurred to you that now might not be the best time for when-we-were-muck stories?"

"You dare to speak to me in this-?" Illyria began.

"Yes, I dare!" Angel protested; he might have to keep Fred's continued existence secret an act like he regretted her loss, but that didn't mean he had to constantly put up with these rants from the thing that had taken her body. "And, yes, we are looking for a way of controlling you any way that we can; I can't have an X-factor like you _bouncing_ around unchecked."

"'Bouncing around'?" Illyria countered.

"Yes, and I know you would do the same thing," Angel said. "I know that for a _fact_ , but this is my kingdom, lady, not yours!"

"Your kingdom!" Illyria spat. "I am Illyria, god-king of the primordium, shaper of things!"

"Yeah, well, that was then-" Angel said, before everything blurred again as Illyria doubled over and screamed-

* * *

  
They were in a different training room now, this one far more well-lit than the last, with Illyria standing at one end and Angel at the other, and three bodies lying on the floor, along with a pile of ash.

"This is…" Angel began, before he registered the identity of the three bodies lying on the ground around him.

The shattered head made identification of the third body all-but-impossible apart from the fact that it was black, but if the other two were Wesley and Lorne, Angel was willing to bet that the third figure was Gunn.

"No…" he said, staring in horror.

"Yes," Illyria said, now holding a battle-axe as she paced around. "Nothing's what it used to be, is it? These are the fruits of your attempt to murder me. Your kingdom turned to ash and stale wind."

She placed her axe on top of the near-headless thing that had once been Charles Gunn. "I slew the one who aided in my release first."

"This can't be…" Angel protested; he didn't go to all this effort to save Fred in secret just to get the rest of his team killed…

"And then Wesley, as he raised his weapon," Illyria continued, looking between the other two bodies, "and your demon clown as he wilted in terror."

"And I'm next?" Angel asked.

"No, vampire," Illyria said, throwing her axe into a pile of dust in one corner. "You were last."

Staring at the ash that had once been him- Illyria's ego was too great for her to bother lying like that- Angel had no idea how he should feel about that.

He'd always accepted that it would probably end for him with a stake through the heart and a pile of ash- when you got down to it, vampires were disturbingly vulnerable once you knew what you were doing- but to actually _see_ that ash…

"Why?" he asked, looking at Illyria.

"You know nothing of this," Illyria said, looking at him in new understanding. "You're from an earlier point in the time line. You are a paradox. You're impossible."

"We attacked you?" Angel asked, trying to focus on what he could understand; temporal paradoxes and time-travel were a headache even if they didn't force him to remember that single perfect day with Buffy he'd been forced to sacrifice, but he definitely wanted to prevent his own death if he could.

"I didn't give you a chance," Illyria said, wincing in pain even as she continued her speech while pacing around him. "That you learn when you become a king… You learn to destroy everything that's not utterly yours. All that matters is victory. That's how your reign persists. You're a slave to an insane construct. You are moral. A true ruler is as moral as a hurricane, empty but for the force of his gale…"

Angel didn't exactly like that analogy of how a true ruler should be, but he had to acknowledge her point about him being a 'slave to an insane construct'; as Lindsey had pointed out, right now he was too tied up in the bureaucracy of work at the firm to really _do_ anything against the Partners' plans…

"But you..." Illyria said, bent over with one arm over her stomach and the other pressing against her head as she glared at Angel. "Trapped in the web of the Wolf, the Ram, the Hart… So much power here, and you quibble at its price… If you want to win a war, you must serve no master but your ambition."

Angel was spared from responding to that statement when Illyria bent over more forcefully, clutching at her skull as she screamed in agony.

"You have not lied!" she said, both hands now pressed to her forehead. "My undoing is beyond you, your people. Something is broken inside me… my power is too great! I know this now, as I know it every time I come to this moment."

"Illyria, if I'm here, if I am paradox, then this can all change, can't it?" Angel asked. "You said things had been altered, what you said, what you did; you can change this outcome!"

"Change is constant," Illyria replied. "Yet things remain the same."

Angel didn't have a chance to ask what she meant as a glowing blue crack appeared in her cheek, followed by multiple similar cracks appearing all over her body. As her body took on an appearance resembling a cracked piece of pottery with a light inside it, Angel's mind raced as he tried to think of something he could do in this situation, before a massive explosion sent Angel flying back…

* * *

  
As he regained his balance, he found himself out in a hallway, Gunn and Wesley just up ahead of him, Wesley carrying a large gun of some sort as Gunn said something about Illyria going 'Chernobyl' on them…

"Wes, you're alive," the vampire said, straightening up in relief as he looked at his friend

"Illyria, she's self-destructing; she's a time bomb."

"Uh… we already knew that, Angel," Gunn said, looking at the vampire in confusion.

"What?" Angel said.

"We've been talking about that for the last few minutes; you were _there_ , remember?" Gunn elaborated, before he and Wesley continued walking towards their destination.

"No, no, no," Angel insisted, as he quickly hurried after his friends. "I just got dragged into a corridor by Illyria, she grabbed me, and we phased through time, but I don't think she actually meant to do it. She's overloading. She's gonna explode."

"Yes, we know," Wesley said. "Angel, we've been over all this."

Angel's attempt to figure out what anyone was talking about was interrupted when they reached a door, Lorne standing beside it holding a walkie-talkie as he followed them into the room… which Angel immediately recognised as the training room he'd been standing in only a few moments ago from his perspective.

"Oh no…" he said, looking around the room before he looked at the others. "Guys, Illyria knows what's going to happen; she's seen it. She knows we want to kill her."

"Yeah, she said that to me as well," Wesley said, clearly dismissing Angel's concerns as regular anxiety.

"That's funny," Lorne said, looking around the room. "I didn't even see her leave."

"That's the way of things…" Gunn began, as Angel suddenly remembered what the apparently future Illyria had told him; she had slain the one responsible for her release first…

Before he could stop to think about it, he dived forward, shoving Gunn away before a leather-clad fist struck him in the face. As he was sent flying backwards, Angel briefly noted that at least he'd saved Gunn- that punch had just broken his nose, but if it had struck Gunn his entire head would have cracked- but the sensation of him hitting the wall forced his mind back on track, looking anxiously at Illyria as he caught himself before he hit the floor, one hand outstretched towards her.

"Wait!" he yelled desperately, ignoring the taste of blood over his lip as he scrambled to his feet. "Wait… everyone, put your weapons down… nobody move…"

"This too…" Illyria said, looking around herself in fear. "All changing-"

She was prevented from finishing her sentence once again as she bent over, clutching her head in pain.

"I know what happens," Angel said, unsure what she remembered but deciding to focus on the facts. "I know you kill us all."

"Excuse me?" Gunn said.

"And then you shudder, and you convulse with pain, and then the power inside you explodes," Angel continued.

"You are the Angel from the past," Illyria noted. "You were swept up in my wake-"

"You're not a king anymore," Angel said, as she reeled back in pain once again. "Your domain is gone, swallowed by time."

"And we've had this conversation," Illyria noted.

"You overload," Angel continued, trying to focus the conversation on what really mattered right now; understanding Illyria's warped temporal perceptions weren't as important as stopping what was about to happen. "I was there. It was powerful enough to blow me back through time; I have no idea what it does to the building."

"More like the continental shelf, actually," Wesley added.

"I have to stop that," Angel said, focusing on the necessity rather than the scale of damage awaiting if he failed. "Do you understand? I cannot have your death blow away my-"

"Your kingdom?" Illyria asked.

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Angel said, uninterested in getting into another debate about what he considered himself right now.

"You ask me to allow you to murder me," Illyria asked, looking between the four of them in confusion.

"After what you did to Fred-" Gunn began.

"No one is murdering you," Wesley interjected. "This device won't kill you."

"It won't?" Gunn repeated in confusion. "I thought you said-"

"I lied," Wesley clarified, before focusing his attention back on the blue woman. "Illyria, this device will draw the energy away from you safely. It will allow you to live."

"Your intent is not murder?" Illyria asked.

"It never was," Wesley said grimly.

"Well, no harm, no foul," Lorne said awkwardly.

"You were willing to destroy me to try and bring back Fred," Illyria noted.

"If I thought that it would accomplish anything, I might," Wesley admitted. "But if you are all that's left… I can save that."

"You want to take my power… to let me live," Illyria said, before her voice became more resolute. "But I am my power. And I would rather be a titanic crater than to be like unto you."

Angel cursed the stubbornness of kings and rulers as Illyria kicked out at Wesley, sending him flying before Angel managed to intercept him, halting his friend's flight even as both of them fell to the ground.

"I kill you," Illyria said firmly. "That's how this ends."

"Not today," Angel said, pushing Wesley aside and charging towards her to deliver his own punch to her face. The attack only succeeded because Illyria was distracted by her initial rant and the obvious disorientation of her temporal jumps, but it was enough to put her off-balance before she doubled over in pain, clutching at her chest once again.

"Illyria," Angel said, seizing on the opportunity her weakness gave him, "the future can change here; you can choose a different path."

"And be nothing," Illyria said.

"And be what you are," Angel corrected. "We can't keep holding on to the past; you have to be able to move forward or you'll be destroyed."

"You would do this to me?" Illyria asked, looking past Angel to where Wesley had regained his footing and was holding that gun-like thing once more.

"I'd try anyway," Wesley said. "Every time."

"I possess so much grace, more grace than this bag of sticks could express," Illyria said, almost looking sad as she spoke. "I was the immaculate embodiment of rule…"

As she spoke, the same blue fracture that Angel had seen in the future appeared on her cheek, her body shaking as it began to crack 'again'.

"I blame this on the weakness of your species," the blue woman said.

"Fair enough," Wesley said, before he pulled the trigger and fired a beam of lightning-like energy at Illyria. The blast seemed to draw energy from Illyria into the weapon, the fractures on her body vanishing as the beam continued its work and blue light travelling from her into the gun, Wesley's efforts only ending as he released the trigger. With the beam gone, Illyria collapsed to the ground, convulsing for a moment before she lapsed into silence, weakly slumped on the ground.

"Illyria…" Wesley said cautiously.

"Touch me and die, vermin," Illyria said weakly.

She might not have changed much in terms of personality, but if her powers really had been drained, Angel was optimistic that the worst of the threat she had posed was over.

Besides, after everything she'd said while he was talking with her future self- it was easier to think of that Illyria as a future version that he'd just erased; anything else was too complicated- he had a few things to think about in terms of how he was going to get into the Circle.

He wasn't going to actually go as far as she clearly would go if she had the opportunity, but if he at least _pretended_ to think like her, focused on his own ambition rather than anything else, he might manage to get inside the Circle without going too far…


	10. The Bounty Hunt

Spike may consider himself an independent individual most of the time, but in a strange way, he was starting to appreciate the benefits of working for the military. Not only did he have far more comfortable accommodation than his previous need to squat in abandoned buildings or crypts- quarters in the SGC itself might not be glamorous, but at least he had power and heat supplied without needing to set anything up himself- but he was even getting paid for going out and beating up the bad guys.

OK, so some of the reason for him getting such good treatment was the fact that he'd single-handedly saved Dakara and was a trusted member of a team that had saved Earth for over ten years even before he'd arrived, but the point still stood; army life wasn't as bad as he'd always thought even before his mess with the Initiative, and things just seemed to be getting better. People trusted that he wouldn't turn on them to get a snack, he trusted that people wouldn't try to kill him for what he was, they gave him relatively free accommodation and food, and all he had to do in return was beat up the bad guys when the situation required it.

The new body they were growing for Angel's friend was progressing fairly well, at any rate. They were having to slow it down to adjust the process somewhat, since most of their borrowed technology relied on them having access to the memories of the template as well as the genetic information, but in general the technology was working out rather well.

Knowledge about why they were cloning that woman and her identity was being kept secret from the rest of the science department just in case the wrong people found out, considering that none of them could be sure about the Senior Partners' full reach. Some of the scientists responsible for supervising the clone's health were still confused about the fact that they didn't have to implant any memories into this clone, but Sam had assured them all that they had a plan and to just continue their work. She had confessed to the rest of SG-1 that she didn't like having to lie to these people, particularly since she'd worked with most of them on other projects in the past, but magic was still an awkward area as far as the SGC was concerned; until the clone was confirmed to be genetically stable, it had to remain under constant supervision before they were ready to risk making contact with Angel.

On a more team-related note, after the SGC's recent victories against the Lucian Alliance and their attempts to smuggle that 'kassa' stuff- seriously, how could _corn_ be addictive?- Landry had offered SG-1 another period of time away from the base to pursue their own projects, and all six of them had virtually jumped at the chance. Mitchell was heading back to his hometown for his high school reunion, Sam was attending a science conference with Doctor Lee- apparently they were presenting some semi-sabotaged equipment to cover up how much science they actually knew- Daniel was doing some research somewhere with plans to meet up with Sam later, and Teal'c was attending to some Jaffa matters offworld. Spike had thought about going with Teal'c to learn more about the Jaffa- he'd really learned shockingly little about them since he'd saved Dakara- but Vala had asked for a chance to see more of his old life, and he'd agreed to take her to a few demon bars he knew of, focusing on those that allowed humans in without them being on the menu.

He'd had to warn Vala against trying to use her old skills on some of the demons- a couple of the ones she'd almost targeted could get particularly picky about learning that they'd been stolen from, and that was discounting some of their reactions when startled- but otherwise she'd adapted to the whole situation rather well, sharing a few rounds with some of the calmer species and even joining him in a couple of rounds of kitten poker when he found some suitable partners.

She'd ended up adopting a small grey kitten they'd won in the last hand, but Spike had talked her into donating the rest of the kittens to a pet store rather than try and sell them all on to other people at the SGC. After all, he wasn't sure if Jaffa even got the concept of pets, and the rest of the team were too busy with work for him to be sure they'd be able to take care of a cat; at least he and Vala didn't really have any other responsibilities at the SGC other than filling out reports after their missions.

Returning to their hotel after a busy night out, the two had just collapsed onto their bed, currently half-dressed but quickly taking steps to remedy that, when one of their phones suddenly rang. As their lips parted company, Vala's top undone and pants halfway down her legs while Spike was topless, the two were tempted to ignore the call and continue what they'd been doing, but professional experience forced them to acknowledge that nobody would be calling them now unless it was urgent. Rolling her eyes in exasperation, Vala sat back as Spike pulled out his cellphone.

"Yes?" he said, resisting the urge to say something sarcastic; he wasn't going to

" _Are you and Vala both fine_?" a familiar voice said urgently at the other end of the line.

"Danny?" Spike said, looking at Vala in surprise. "Yeah, we're fine… shouldn't we be?"

" _I was just attacked by a bounty hunter with advanced technology while I was searching through a library_ ," Daniel replied.

"Hold on; _you_ were attacked?" Spike said, sitting up in surprise as Vala scrambled off to sit on the bed beside him, the vampire putting the phone on speaker before putting it on the bed between him and Vala. "As in, someone attacked you on _Earth_? How's that possible?"

" _You have to remember that we've developed a bit of a reputation over the years since the Stargate program started; our 'gate address is fairly well known, if nothing else, and it's not that hard to find us in a spaceship from that_ ," Daniel pointed out grimly. " _The assassin was hit by a bus before she could do anything more than threaten me, but I've spoken to General Landry and he's making contact with the rest of the team to warn them; she definitely seemed to be after me as a member of SG-1 rather than me on my own_."

"Any suspects- wait, who else could it be but the Lucian Alliance, right?" Vala began, leaning over to better address the phone (Giving Spike a good view down her still-open shirt into the bargain; Vala had been getting more into the concept of lingerie since the two of them had gotten together).

" _That's our guess here, anyway_ ," Daniel confirmed. " _The Ori wouldn't bother with this kind of approach even if they were still around, and Ba'al would want us to know that he was responsible; they're the only ones who might benefit from our deaths but want to keep it secret_."

"So what now?" Spike asked.

" _As I said, General Landry's getting in touch with the rest of the team; I just thought that I should call you myself_ ," Daniel explained. " _I'll get back to you when we know anything more; there's no reason to believe that anyone's after you- Sam's speculating that we were hit by something that dosed us with a low-level radiation tracker on our last mission and neither of you were there when that was used against us- but you should get back to base in case one of their agents manage to find you_."

"Better safe than sorry, eh?" Spike noted. Under other circumstances, he might have resented the idea that he couldn't take care of himself, but right now he was willing to acknowledge that his new friend had a good point; if he hung around here too long and gave the Lucian Alliance the chance to learn more about the world of demons and magic, they could become a _much_ bigger threat. "Where to next?"

" _Just get back to the nearest military base_ ," Daniel replied. " _The_ Odyssey _will be ready to pick you up soon; it's just checking on Teal'c before it gets us_."

"Check," Vala said, before Spike ended the call. "So much for a vacation…"

"Eh, we can do this later," Spike said with a shrug. "Besides, I think we can both agree that putting down the Lucian Alliance should be a good way to pass the time."

"What does it say about us that we've both become workaholics since joining the SGC?" Vala asked with a smile.

"Hey, at least we're doing something _fun_ with our jobs," Spike pointed out, even as he raised his hands to take hold of Vala's shirt. "Which reminds me… if we move quickly, maybe we could still finish this off…?"

* * *

  
Sitting in his usual guest quarters of the _Odyssey_ as he waited for the rest of the team, Daniel wasn't sure if he should admire the Lucian Alliance for their persistence or curse their stupidity. He was willing to acknowledge that they were a greater potential problem than the Goa'uld given their willingness to work together where the Goa'uld were all about satisfying their own egos, but they still _thought_ on a fundamentally smaller scale; they were dangerous, but when you got down to it, they were just out to secure their profits rather than actually conquer anything.

Still, even if they were dangerous, they hadn't actually managed to make much progress in their plans so far. He hadn't managed to get in touch with Mitchell yet- apparently the signal in Mitchell's area had been disrupted by a damaged cell communication tower, according to Sam and Landry's research- but Teal'c had already dealt with his assassin before the SGC got in touch with him, faking more serious injuries after the first attack failed to lure the assassin in so that he could deal with the man himself, and had returned to Earth shortly afterwards. Sam had nearly been shot while attending a science conference with Doctor Lee, but she'd been able to use a holographic projector and a 'prototype' energy weapon that the two of them had been displaying at the conference to take out the bounty hunter before they could actually shoot her.

With the _Odyssey_ currently near Earth due to the lack of activity out in the galaxy as so many planets focused on more individual reconstruction after the fall of the Ori, it had been easy enough to collect the currently-scattered team. Sam and Teal'c were already getting their weapons together in the armoury, and once Spike and Vala had been picked up, they would be heading over to Mitchell's home town to try and intercept any bounty hunters that might have gone after him and hopefully figure out how to end this hunt before anyone got seriously hurt.

Sam was already running searches for most of the traces left by the cloaking technologies they'd encountered over the years to see if they could find a cloaked ship somewhere around Earth, but with no way of knowing for sure where it was, the best they could do was make a few guesses about where it might be and hope for the best.

A knock on his door brought Daniel's thouhts back to the present, standing up and smiling as the door opened to reveal Spike and Vala standing outside, both dressed in black BDUs.

"All well?" Spike asked, smiling over at the archaeologist.

"As well as we could expect," Daniel replied, smiling back at his friends. "Sorry we had to cut your vacation short-"

"Don't worry about it; we had time to see some interesting things, and I got a kitten," Vala said reassuringly. "Besides, it's apparently best to be careful in these places; apparently I nearly provoked something that has a tendency to suck out bone marrow for a snack."

"Ah," Daniel said, shaking his head at Vala's casual announcement before he looked at Spike. "You know, I actually thought Earth was relatively safe before you were delivered to us."

"Regretting it?" Spike asked.

"Not really," Daniel said reassuringly. "It's actually fascinating to consider how demons fit in to everything we knew of history…"

He shrugged and indicated the door. "Anyway, we'd better get back to the control room; if you're here, we'll be going to pick up Mitchell fairly soon."

"Getting the gang back together for the big showdown, eh?" Spike asked.

"Hopefully it won't be as difficult as that," Daniel said. "You have to realise, since we're dealing with bounty hunters, the important thing-"

"Is to deal with the person paying the bounty rather than just kill off the hunters, eh?" Spike noted. "Been there myself; once tried to hire an ancient order of demon assassins to kill the Slayer before I got the chip in my head."

"Ah," Daniel said, once again uncomfortable at the reminder of Spike's past. It was a bit easier to accept tales of Spike's past compared to learning about some of Teal'c's past crimes, as he had learned enough to know that Spike pre-soul wasn't the same person as who he was now, but it was still an uncomfortable topic.

"Anyway," he said, turning the attention back to the matter at hand, "the point is, if we can identify who's behind this, we may be able to call off the bounty, so don't do anything until we've had a chance to talk with at least one of them."

As Spike and Vala nodded in acknowledgement, Daniel stood up and left the room, heading for the ship's control deck; with Spike and Vala on board, they would soon be heading over to pick up Mitchell, so it would be best to get all six of the team in one place. When he reached the control room, he found Sam and Teal'c standing around the control console, dressed in black BDUs and looking grim.

"Problem?" Spike asked.

"The SGC has received a message from Colonel Mitchell informing us that he desired back-up," Teal'c explained.

"And that's a bad thing?" Vala asked.

"It is when I adjusted the sensors to find the radioactive tracker we were covered with and he's in the middle of his school hall having what looks like a dance," Sam clarified. "If he thought there was a threat and he was free to take action, he'd be hiding somewhere to limit the risk of innocent people getting caught in the crossfire; if he's in public, it's because he has to be."

"Ah," Daniel said, nodding in grim understanding. "So we're thinking someone's down there trying to lure us into a trap?"

"Right," Spike put in, nodding in resolution. "We got any scanner-things that can help us find alien tech?"

"Uh… yes, we do," Sam said, looking at the vampire in surprise. "Well, we've managed to adjust a few prototype life-signs detectors to search for more advanced technology, anyway…"

"Great," Spike said, already undoing his BDU top. "Get me one of those while I get my kit, then beam me down."

"You?" Daniel and Sam asked in surprise.

"Hey, I'm not tagged and I'm the best person qualified to stop any stupid bounty hunter trying to pull anything; what's the problem?" Spike asked.

"… There isn't one," Sam acknowledged. "I'll get the scanner; be ready to head down there."

* * *

  
Having been sent down into an empty corner of the car park, dressed in his familiar leather jacket and other more comfortable attire, Spike took a moment to make sure that nobody had seen him before he walked briskly into the school, not wanting to run and risk attracting attention. The corridors were certainly larger than Sunnydale High's had been- he hadn't spent a lot of time in schools before he'd started dealing with Buffy and the other Scoobies- but so long as he acted like he belonged there, nobody was likely to question what he was up to.

Having reached the main hall, Spike once again found himself noting that the gymnasium of this place was far larger than what he'd seen of Sunnydale High's gym during his initial attack when he'd first come to the town, but Spike wasn't there to reminisce; he was just there to find his target.

Having confirmed that Mitchell was dancing with an attractive blonde in the middle of the hall, Spike took a few surreptitious glances at the scanner Sam had given him before he identified his most likely target. If he was reading this device right, the guy standing in the corner in a smart suit with a slightly receding hairline that made his face seem like it was sticking out was carrying something that didn't belong on Earth, which meant that he was probably the person he was looking for. Carefully moving around the hall without drawing attention to himself, he stood behind the man in question just to make sure that his target was looking at Mitchell before he spoke.

"Here for the bounty?" he asked.

"You know-?" the other man said, turning to look at Spike only to get knocked out with a quick head-butt.

"And you know," Spike noted, grabbing the man as he slumped over. "Makes this easier, anyway."

Trying not to look too conspicuous, Spike adjusted his hold of the man so that one of the target's arms was slung over his shoulders, giving the impression that the other guy was just drunk. As soon as he was out of the hall and out of view of anyone else, he activated his signal device and was beamed back up to the _Odyssey_ , dumping his target on the floor.

"You're sure he's the bounty hunter?" Sam asked.

"Unless this just became the new style of watch," Vala said, crouching down to roll back the man's sleeve and reveal a strange gold circle with four red buttons on it, "I think we can safely say Spike found his target."

"And if this man felt comfortable enough to watch Colonel Mitchell in a public location, he was most likely also comfortable assuming that he was the only bounty hunter in this area," Teal'c put in. "Any man willing to act against the Tau'ri and SG-1 in such a manner would not make the mistake of assuming that he was alone."

"Particularly not when he was trying to trap us," Daniel agreed, before she looked back at their new prisoner. "So what do we do now?"

"Let him wake up, and offer him a new deal," Sam said.

"A new deal?" Spike repeated, looking at the colonel in surprise. "Like what?"

"Well, from what Cam saw when he was infiltrating the alliance to find the _Odyssey_ when it was stolen last year, the current leader's already facing some questions from his seconds, and it's probably only going to get worse after this attempt to take us out went so completely wrong," Sam explained, a thoughtful smile on her face as she looked around at the others.

"So if we can convince this man that it would be easier for him to take advantage of the opportunity to score points with the next potential leader than try and appease the guy who keeps screwing up…" Spike finished for her, smiling in understanding as he looked at the man at his feet. "Get those gits to take each other out; gotta admit, I like the sound of that."

"Seconded," Vala put in.

"I share your opinion of this plan," Teal'c confirmed.

"Right then," Daniel nodded. "Let's just get this guy somewhere secure until we can give him our proposition, and then we can leave Mitchell to his reunion."

"Sounds like a plan," Spike noted. "Looked like he was enjoying himself down there anyway; no point interrupting if we don't have to."

His own holiday might have been interrupted, but he wasn't going to disrupt Mitchell's any more than he had to; if the guy was open-minded enough to accept Spike on the team despite his vampire status, Spike was going to do what he could to make sure Mitchell had a chance to enjoy himself.


	11. Talk with the Colonel

Sitting in his office as another day approached its end, Angel wasn't sure how he should feel after the day's events.

It had been reassuring to see that Connor was doing well after what he'd been through because of Jasmine's manipulations and his upbringing in Quor'toth, even if it had hurt to know that he was only that well-adjusted because he didn't remember anything of him, but after Wesley had restored his memories of the original course of events, Angel didn't know what to do about the former Watcher.

He trusted Wesley not to start telling Gunn or Lorne about what had happened, if only because he'd made several mistakes back then that he wouldn't like to think about more than he had to, but the idea that Wesley didn't trust him made him feel far more concerned.

He just wanted to get in touch with the Circle so that he could shut them down, but if he was going to do that he had to convince them that he'd been corrupted by his position; how far would he have to go…?

"Hello?" a voice said at the door. Looking up, Angel saw a short man in glasses and a suit standing in the door, an awkwardness about him that didn't fit some of Wolfram & Hart's usual clientele.

"Can I help you?" Angel asked, as the man walked into the room and closed the door behind him. Before Angel could say anything else, the man pulled a crystal orb out of his pocket and muttered a few quick words, resulting in a bright flash filling the office and the man turning into a tall, well-built figure in more casual attire.

"Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell," the man said, nodding politely at Angel. "I work with Sam and Jackson."

"Ah," Angel asked, stuck for anything to say to what had just happened. "Glamour?"

"Spike directed me to a place here that sold that kind of thing; thought it might be better if we did what we could to stop anyone tracing me back to where we're… working," Mitchell explained, shrugging slightly at the vampire. "Still not that used to this stuff myself, but hey; whatever works, right?"

"Right," Angel said, nodding in awkward acknowledgement; even considering how little he knew about these people, it was still strange to hear someone of Mitchell's age being this casual about the existence of magic, rather than protesting or questioning it after so long believing it didn't exist. "So… what are you doing here?"

"I was… in the area… and Jackson thought I should give you an update on the situation at our end," Mitchell explained with an encouraging smile. "You'll be glad to know that we're making good progress with that clone of your friend; we had to adjust our process so that we only cloned the body without giving it its own mind, so it took a while to get the growth right without any… unfortunate accidents… but Colonel Carter's pretty sure that she's found the balance."

"That's… good," Angel said; he was still slightly bemused at the idea that Spike's friends could create a complete clone of someone without magic in this time frame, but so far he had no real reason to doubt their abilities. "How long do you think it'll be until she's ready?"

"Give it a week or two to get her back to the right age and let us make sure everything's working on automatic- breathing properly and all that, you know- and then we should all be ready," Mitchell confirmed. "You, uh… got any way of getting that soul into its new home?"

"I know people I can talk to," Angel said; if he could just talk directly to Giles or Willow and explain his latest plan, he _knew_ that he could convince them to help him help Fred when the time came. "You just make sure her new body works."

"No sweat," Mitchell nodded. "You do the spells, we do the advanced science; it'll work."

Despite the other man's expressed faith, Angel still crossed his fingers under his desk at the thought of what they were trying to do. He might want to trust these people after everything they'd done for him, and he had faith that Spike wasn't gullible enough to have that kind of faith in them for no reason, but given that past examples of science and demons working together included that 'Adam' thing he'd heard about and those cyborgs who'd attacked posing as Wesley's father, he had reason to be concerned…

"Anyway," Mitchell said, looking back at Angel, "on that topic, how's your project coming along?"

"I'm… getting there," Angel said; the thought of what he was doing wasn't exactly pleasant, but if he could focus on the final goal, it should be all right. "I… made some arrangements to have a demon clan receive a baby they're planning to sacrifice once it reaches a certain age- I'm going to make getting the kid back to his mother high priority once I know who I'm after- but it's hard to find something I can do that's big enough to make them think I've given into the power without doing anything… irreparable."

"Ah," Mitchell said, shaking his head as he studied the vampire. "I do _not_ envy you trying to pull this off, you know that?"

"Believe me, even in a worst-case-scenario, I'd give anything to have this over with," Angel said grimly.

He knew that what he was doing was important, even if it might turn out to be nothing but a minor inconvenience to his enemies once everything was said and done, but he hated having to deceive his friends after everything they'd been through so far…

"Undercover ops are always rough," Mitchell said, looking grimly at the vampire. "Last one I was on featured a bit where I had to torture my friend to maintain my cover; at least you haven't had to go _that_ far."

"Not yet…" Angel sighed, lowering his head at the thought.

"Crap… sorry I brought that up," Mitchell said, walking over to place a reassuring hand on Angel's shoulder, evidently regretting his earlier ill-chosen words of support. "Just hang in there, and remember; you're not alone."

"Thanks," Angel said, nodding at the other man before he chuckled slightly at the thought of the situation. "One of Spike's friends helping me… things _have_ changed."

"That's life," Mitchell said, before he reached under his jacket and was suddenly the awkward man in the suit he'd been earlier. "Anyway, I'd better go; got to keep this under the radar, after all."

"Sure thing," Angel nodded at the other man in understanding. "And thanks."

With a final parting nod, the man who had moments earlier been Colonel Mitchell nodded at him in understanding before he left Angel's office, leaving the vampire to reflect on what had just taken place.

He might still need to make contact with the Circle, but at least he knew that Fred's new body was all right…


	12. The Inefficiences of Democracy

"Seriously," Spike said, looking incredulously at his teammates as they sat around the SGC cafeteria, "you guys got to play the bad guys, and I got stuck talking to a bunch of stuffed shirts in Washington about a parallel universe where we all blew it?"

"It's not like we had it easy over there-" Mitchell began.

"Yeah, but that's the kind of challenge I can _like_ ; besides, I've got a bit of experience in that area," Spike noted, smiling slightly at the colonel.

"Taking hostages?" Daniel said, looking sceptically at Spike "From what you've told us, you weren't often interested in anything more than dealing with the immediate problem; your stories don't give the impression that you had the patience for that kind of plan…"

"I just meant bein' the bad guy on that level," Spike clarified, shrugging in an awkwardly proud manner that always came across him when discussing his pre-souled past. "You seriously couldn't have come up with a better plan?"

"We couldn't leave the museum until the SGC got back in touch with us, and nobody was listening to our attempts to explain the truth; we had to work with what we had," Mitchell said defensively. "We just lucked out that there was someone there who already had some idea what the Stargate was; things could have been a lot worse."

"I didn't do that bad either," Vala put in, smiling slightly at Spike before she sighed in frustration. "Up to a point, anyway; if I hadn't turned that bomb on while trying to tap its power, things would have been a lot easier…"

"Well, nobody's perfect," Spike shrugged. "Talking of which, did you even find that Clava Infinitas… whatever?"

"We did not," Teal'c said solemnly. "In the end, it was not one of our more successful missions."

"Tell me about it; a whole planet deciding to just stick their head in the sands rather than face the wider universe…" Mitchell sighed. "I mean, how can you learn that there's more about there and then decide to ignore it?"

"Some people suck," Spike said, shrugging. "Trust me, Sunnydale was a _great_ example of what people will ignore; I heard that one time a demon basically drove every adult in the town into a massive anti-magic frenzy that ended with Buffy and Red almost gettin' burned at the stake by their own mothers, and Red's mother basically decided to ignore it afterwards."

"What?" Sam said, looking at the vampire incredulously. "Her _mother_ just… forgot about trying to burn her at the stake?"

"More like persistently ignored it after the fact," Spike clarified, before he shook his head in amusement. "And that's just the most extreme example; when I showed up in that city, I attacked the high school's parents' night with a bunch of other vamps and they just said my group was just a gang on PCP."

"Well, if they didn't get a good look at you-" Mitchell began.

"And later on they apparently blamed the school blowing up at the graduation on a damaged gas main rather than admit it was done to kill a giant demon snake," Spike added.

"Ah," Sam said, nodding in awkward understanding. "That's… very strange."

"It's like I said at our meeting," Spike noted. "When people get worried, they either go all in and screw up or they hide away and ignore it; if you're not goin' to stay calm, get out of it and get a cooler head in to find a way out."

"That is a very diplomatic method of phrasing it for you," Teal'c said, looking over at the vampire with a slight stare.

"Hey, I can be polite," Spike said defensively. "Just not much need most o'the time."

"Moving on," Mitchell said, looking over at his second-in-command, "while we were away, any news on the Angel front while you were up there?"

"They were obviously more interested in Miss Burkle's theories on portals and their possible application to my own wormhole theories, but I was able to convince them that the rest of the team should be considered as well," Sam confirmed. "We can make the necessary arrangements easily enough, particularly with Spike setting a precedent and some of the DRI's old records, so all we need is the cue from Angel that everything's ready at his end."

"Well, that's something…" Mitchell said, shaking his head with a slight smile before he looked at the others. "You ever stop to consider how weird our lives are now? I mean, we saved the world from a race of fake gods, and now we're planning to help a vampire take down some ancient evil that's backing a law firm, while also preparing to move a woman's soul into a clone of herself?"

"Well, it's not like it's a _complete_ shift," Daniel noted. "I mean, Merlin told us how magic came about; it's all still a part of the world the Ancients left us."

"Which just reinforces how those guys needed to get off their ass and do something at the time rather than leave us to clean up," Mitchell groaned. "Seriously, they release a wave of monsters onto Earth, create the Wraith while trying to create their own new weapons against the Ori, and then go and leave us to stumble on the Ori without even a warning about the problem?"

"The world _has_ managed without us getting involved in supernatural matters before now," Daniel pointed out. "It's not like in the past, where we had to do something after stumbling on the threat; it could be dealt with by Angel and his friends, but we're just making it easier for them to get through what they have planned."

"Point," Mitchell said, shrugging as he looked around the team. "This is just… well, I wasn't expecting to deal with a genre shift at this stage in the game."

"Well," Spike said, grinning over at his team leader, "for what it's worth, you're doing a lot better than Captain Cardboard's lot ever did, and they were meant to be _trained_ to deal with crap like me."

The rest of SG-1 just smiled gratefully at Spike's compliment as they sat around the table, thinking about the progress they had made and the hope that they could help their new ally; they had accomplished so much in their decade of Stargate travel, but they so rarely had the chance to use that knowledge to help people, rather than just to fight their latest war.


	13. The Next Stage

Angel had no idea if he should feel good or bad about how things had gone after that mess in Italy. Technically, he hadn't succeeded in his mission to acquire the Capo di Famiglia's head and had actually just spent a lot of time running around Italy, and then there'd been that mess with that woman who may or may not have been Buffy (He was willing to concede that the Immortal was potentially her type, but he liked to think she wouldn't get that involved with someone so blatantly morally ambiguous).

Seeing 'Buffy' with the Immortal had been particularly awkward by any definition, but at least he'd had the strength to avoid a direct confrontation; the Immortal might be a dick, but he wasn't abusive, and at least he seemed to be in his 'good' phase right now if he'd gone to the trouble of shipping the head back to Angel…

As much as Angel found it strange to actually envy anything about his grand-childe, it was somewhat reassuring to see that Spike had managed to move on from Buffy, given his obvious interest in that 'Vala' woman when they'd come here. He might still have to deal with his own complex feelings for Buffy, but the casual nature of Spike's interaction with Vala had made it clear that the two of them simply enjoyed each other's company and saw no real reason to make a big deal out of anything that had happened in Spike's past (He didn't know enough about Vala's past to make that kind of statement about her).

Still, in the end, what was really important right now was that his cover had been maintained even if he'd managed to prevent a war into the bargain; he could easily justify his recent trip as wanting to maintain the status quo while still being 'corrupted' by the power that the firm was offering him.

Illyria even had the potential to be a useful asset now that her powers had been limited, even if he wasn't entirely certain how reliable she could be; he knew that humanity could exert an influence, but she was only dealing with Fred's memories in there rather than the 'essence' of Fred or whatever it was…

In any case, he had to believe that he was getting close to making contact with the Circle; all he needed was one big thing, enough to convince them that he was going over the edge while nothing so big that he couldn't undo it later…

After that, all he could do was hope that Spike's friends were as well-connected as they kept claiming to be; he knew that they'd assured him that they had some kind of plan in action, but talk was comparatively cheap when it came to something like this…

The sound of his rarely-used cellphone suddenly came from his inner jacket pocket, cutting his thoughts short as he reached into his pocket and pulled it out.

"Yes?" he said, briefly wondering who this could be.

" _We've scrambled the call, but I'll make this brief_ ," the voice of Doctor Daniel Jackson said at the other end of the line, suddenly reminding him that he'd sent them this number just in case they needed to get in touch. " _We're ready here; just let us know when you need our help_."

"Send me a secure line and I'll tell you what I can," Angel responded; if they couldn't guarantee the security of this phone, he needed a means of talking to them that he _knew_ couldn't be listened to.

" _Understood_ ," Daniel said. " _It'll be there soon_."

With that, the call came to an end, leaving Angel looking at the phone with a hopeful smile.

It wasn't much, but if there was any chance that he could work out something else…

His thoughts were cut off when a strange glow appeared out of nowhere in the middle of his desk, before vanishing to reveal what looked like a high-tech earpiece. For a moment, Angel wondered if it was some kind of trap, but quickly dismissed that idea; if the Partners or the Circle knew what he was planning, they could just destroy a window and make it look like a random assassination attempt, rather than do something this obviously odd. Picking up the earpiece, he placed it in his left ear, tapping the button to see what would happen, only to find himself enveloped by the same strange glow…


	14. Angel in the Heavens

As the glow faded, Angel found himself in a fairly large room, Doctor Jackson standing in front of him and Colonels Mitchell and Carter on either side, arms folded as they looked at him.

"What the-?" he began.

"Before you say anything, nobody will know that you've gone; when we sent you the earpiece, we also sent down another cloaking spell based on the one I used last time I visited you," Mitchell explained, holding up a hand reassuringly. "And if this takes too long, Spike's back in your office using the same thing I used to get to you back then as well; so long as he keeps the door locked and nothing comes up, he should be able to pass for you easily enough."

"Right…" Angel said, deciding not to over-analyse the idea that he actually did trust Spike to pose as him for the implied few moments described and focus on more immediate matters. "So what do you want to talk to me about… and what just happened anyway?"

"Normally, we'd take more time before we answered those questions, but considering your situation, the usual rules don't quite apply," Doctor Jackson explained. "Actually, you owe Spike for this one; since he set a precedent, it's been agreed that we can tell you everything about our project without you needing to sign a non-disclosure agreement, although you'll have to fill out all relevant paperwork if you take the offer."

"What offer?" Angel asked, looking between the three in confusion. "What is this place?"

"Turn around," Carter smiled at him.

Following her instructions, Angel turned around, and his eyes widened incredulously at the sight before him.

The large window before him showing the night sky wasn't impressive at first, but when he realised that he was looking at Earth at the lower part of the window, the sight became absolutely breathtaking.

He was in _space_ …

"You have spaceships?" he said, turning back to the three people who'd brought him here. "Earth has _spaceships_?"

"Among other things," Colonel Carter said with a smile. "We thought that it would be best to explain this to you here so that you know we're telling the truth and can be sure that we won't be interrupted or overheard."

"Good… uh, good call," Angel said, nodding awkwardly as he looked back at Earth below him; he had to admit, he'd never heard any suggestion that any demonic power had influence outside of Earth's atmosphere (He recalled hearing reports from the Sunnydale gang about someone summoning a demon from the moon, but that had also sounded like a very unique set of circumstances)…

"So… what's this all about?" he said, focusing his attention on what mattered most right now as he looked back at the other three. "I mean, you didn't just bring me here to show off your ship, right?"

"No," Doctor Jackson confirmed. "Actually, we brought you here to offer you and your friends a job."

"A job?" Angel repeated. "Doing what?"

"Helping Atlantis fight alien vampires in another galaxy," Mitchell concluded.

Angel could only stare in surprise at that statement, unable to process what he'd just heard.

"…What?" he said at last.

"OK," Doctor Jackson said, stepping forward to address Angel more directly, "in a nutshell, several thousand years ago, the first evolution of the human form came into existence and created all kinds of advanced technology, including what we've come to call the 'Stargate Network', which is essentially a series of portals that allow the users to travel from one planet to another by walking through an active Stargate-"

"Hold on; _planet_?" Angel repeated. "There are other inhabitable _planets_ out there?"

"More than you'd think," Mitchell noted with a slight smile. "The Stargates have mostly been located on planets that are suitable for human habitation, but there's a few interesting exceptions that have just changed over the centuries…"

"Anyway," Daniel said, taking up the story once again, "about three years ago, we discovered a Stargate address to another galaxy that led us to discover the Ancient city of Atlantis, which was actually what we've come to term a 'city-ship', an entire city that can actually fly like a standard spaceship. We sent an international expedition there, but once they'd arrived, they discovered that this galaxy was plagued by a race known as the Wraith, who feed by absorbing humans' life-energy to sustain themselves."

"Ah," Angel said, nodding in grim understanding. "Hence the 'space vampires' comment?"

"Exactly," Daniel confirmed. "What we were thinking is that, if you need to get away from these 'Senior Partners' and hide somewhere safe, we'd be willing to offer you and your team the chance to relocate to Atlantis and join the expedition. From what we've seen of your team, you could all have something to offer; you and Mr Gunn have a great deal of experience at fighting more-than-human enemies, Mr Wyndam-Pryce's mythological and linguistic knowledge could be useful for translation and research purposes, and Miss Burkle's scientific expertise goes without saying."

"You can probably add Lorne and Illyria to that list as well," Angel said, crossing his fingers as he spoke. "Illyria's still adjusting, but she seems to have settled in… reasonably well if she's given something interesting to fight, and Lorne at least deserves the option."

"Of course," Daniel nodded at Angel in understanding. "If you think they'll be agreeable, we'll make the arrangements at our end."

"Good to know," Angel said, his tone grim as he considered how things were going for him back on Earth. "I still haven't heard from the Circle yet, but I'm hoping I'll get there soon. The difficult bit is making deals that give the impression I'm giving into the power of my new position without doing anything I won't have time to undo later…"

"Well, keep the earjack on you and send us a message if you think there's anything we can do to help," Mitchell said, smiling encouragingly at the vampire. "Obviously we can't be sure we'll be able to do anything, but we've got a fair amount of medical and military tech up here; if there is anything we can do to help out, we might as well try to do it."

"Thanks," Angel said, nodding at the three of them with a slightly awkward smile. "I just… what you've done for Fred alone…"

"Hey," Mitchell smiled at him, "from what Spike's told us, you've been through a lot of crap over the years and you're still trying to save the world; anyone who can keep on fighting the good fight after all that deserves any kind of break we can give them."

Angel never would have expected that he'd ever be grateful to Spike for anything, but if this situation played out, he was _really_ going to owe his grand-childe a few favours…


	15. Penetrating the Circle

"So," General Landry said, looking solemnly around the table at the assembled members of SG-1, "we've created a clone of a woman whose original body was possessed by a demon, and now you want us to contact a _witch_ to see about moving the woman's soul into the clone before relocating a vampire, a couple of demons, a street thug and a former member of a demon-monitoring organisation to Atlantis?"

"Well, when you put it that way, of _course_ it sounds stupid," Vala noted.

"Sir, with all due respect, it's not like we're asking you to relocate a bunch of people who can't cut it," Mitchell noted. "These guys have been dealing with the weird and whacky in Los Angeles for the better part of the last five years, and most of them were doing something like that long before they even turned up in the city. Angel's pretty sure they'd be willing to help out in Atlantis; all they need from us is a guarantee that we can get them somewhere safe after the big showdown."

"We're seriously lending weight to this… conspiracy theory of his?" Landry asked sceptically, even as he turned to look at Spike. "Have you ever even heard of this… group Angel claims to be trying to infiltrate?"

"Not immediately, but I wasn't really that interested in the higher-level stuff for most of the time 'fore I went to Sunnydale," Spike explained. "However, I _can_ vouch for Angel; man might get on my nerves, but he wouldn't ask us to go to these kind of lengths 'less he was really desperate for back-up, and he _definitely_ wouldn't make up something like this."

"Point noted," Landry said grimly, before he turned his attention back to the rest of SG-1. "Still, does all this really merit relocating our latest 304to a position over Los Angeles? We're still working on putting everything together-"

"Which is why it's the perfect ship for this purpose," Sam pointed out. "The _Apollo_ is preparing for its deployment to Pegasus, and we can't afford to take the _Daedalus_ or the _Odyssey_ out of circulation, but the new 304only has the essential framework and a few vital systems put together so far; it has everything we need to get Angel and his friends out of harm's way without needing to do anything itself."

"Spike's already proven to be an asset here, and there's no way of knowing what the expedition could encounter out in Atlantis that might benefit from his kind of assistance," Daniel continued. "From everything we've heard, Angel and his team have been dealing with all kinds of strange situations in Los Angeles for the last few years, and I can confirm that Mr Wyndam-Pryce and Miss Burkle have the kind of skills that would have attracted our attention on their own if they just published more papers. If we have the opportunity to bring in, we need to at least try it; on one level, we _owe_ them for everything they've done, and on another level, they can all be genuine assets to our research."

Looking around the table one last time in contemplative silence, Landry finally nodded.

"All right," he said at last. "Considering the potential assets that these people could offer… combined with the precedent set by Mr Spike's role on this team… I think I can get the IOA to sign off on this."

"Make it clear that they need to make it quick," Spike put in. "From what Angel said, he's fairly sure these suckers are going to want him to join their scurvy crew sooner rather than later…"

"In the meantime, maybe we should see about calling that witch associate of yours?" Vala asked, looking curiously over at Spike. "I mean, we should probably get the soul into the clone before anyone else finds out about us…"

"Good point," Mitchell said, nodding at Vala before he turned to Spike. "Don't suppose you've got her number?"

"Looked up her latest one since we cooked up this crazy scheme," Spike smiled, before his expression became grimmer. "Just hope she's not too pissed about the fact that I've been keeping mum since I got here…"

* * *

  
Sitting contemplatively in his office, Angel wondered if he was really ready for this.

He had been fully briefed on what Spike's new allies had to offer his plans, and he had a few extra bits of equipment on-hand just in case something came up, but he still didn't _know_ what he could expect from the Circle. He'd already made arrangements to give the Fell Brethren their future sacrifice, and his recent 'deal' with Senator Brucker should go some way to convince the right people that he was succumbing to the temptations of their offered power, particularly based on Izzy's comments about the Circle's interests, but there was no way to _know_ what the Circle would need for evidence that he'd 'abandoned' his old role as a Champion…

He was actually grateful that he'd decided to call things off with Nina after he'd helped Daniel and Sam save Fred. He'd acknowledged Wesley's earlier point about the genuinely limited opportunities for perfect happiness in most relationships, but it would have been a lot harder having to lie to her about his plans as well as everyone else; it was fairer to her to give her a chance at finding a more stable relationship outside of her time as a werewolf rather than one where her boyfriend would have spent most of his time lying to her.

The meeting with Senator Brucker that morning had left a foul taste in his mouth, but he'd felt more comfortable making those arrangements after he'd sent a brief message to Doctor Jackson after the meeting; hopefully someone at their end would be able to give Brucker's rival some kind of cover story to explain what they'd done to him as the result of some kind of more conventional brainwashing.

Things with Illyria were still a bit tense, but Gunn seemed to have found some degree of purpose in helping her cope with her new world in Wesley's absence, as though trying to compensate for his self-perceived role in helping to arrange her resurrection. The Watcher had seemed particularly depressed after something had happened while Angel was away dealing with that mess in Italy, but as long as Illyria didn't want to start trying to kill anyone, he was content not to try and press the issue any further.

It was hard to focus on his central plan even when people were in danger on a street level, but with Gunn and Illyria looking at the recent reports of a Boretz demon down at the old amusement park, and his recent discreet 'message' to Wesley to warn him about the plan, he could be assured that any immediate problems were under control…

When Hamilton came into his office with a confident smile that somehow looked far more welcoming than anything Angel had seen the man demonstrate before, Angel wasn't sure if he should grateful or concerned at the sight of that guy looking so pleased with himself; he'd already identified Hamilton as a significant potential problem, but that didn't mean the guy suspected anything yet…

* * *

  
After Wesley's initial request for a meeting had been deflected- although Angel hoped that it would have been about the subtle message he'd managed to leave the ex-Watcher regarding the existence of the Circle- Angel's earlier ambivalence was resolved with the news that he'd finally done enough to be invited to a full meeting of the Circle, along with assurances that his initiation would take place during that time.

Privately, Angel was surprised that it had been so comparatively easy as that- he'd been anxiously wondering if he'd have to kill a Slayer or something like that before they'd let him meet the full gang- but he supposed that his apparently former status as a Champion meant that what would have only attracted some attention to Wolfram & Hart's former CEOs 'meant' a lot more to the Circle. The late-night visit he'd received from Wesley, Gunn and Lorne had been worrying, but he felt that he'd kept up the illusion he'd been working to create of his corruption easily enough, and at least the news that Drogyn was in town confirmed that his broader plan to convince others of his corruption was working out.

Still, even if it had been necessary to reinforce the illusion of his corruption, that talk about 'the business of business' made him feel sick; he wasn't remotely interested in any of that stuff beyond what he'd needed to do to keep the firm running, and now he had to act as though it genuinely mattered to him.

He wasn't denying that he'd appreciated the power and resources he'd acquired at first, but where was the point in getting power if you lost sight of what you'd wanted to use that power for in the first place…?

Angel shook his head to get his mind back on track; he wasn't going to help anyone if he got caught up in worrying about the lies he had to tell right now. If the Partners and the Circle learned that Drogyn was in Los Angeles, things would already certainly get more difficult, but Angel had a plan to deal with that issue, so long as Spike's friends were able to do everything they'd promised…

After his team had left, Angel had followed the instructions he'd received from Hamilton and made his way down to the secret chamber underneath one of Wolfram & Hart's subsidiary offices. Once he'd reached the chamber entrance, he wasn't entirely surprised to see a roaring fire in front of him; the Circle struck him as the sort of organisation that would enjoy that kind of excessive display of power.

Resigned to his role, he took a deep breath and leapt through the fire to the chamber on the other side, where a shirtless man with a bag over his head was being brutally beaten by robed men with sticks. Pushing the robed men aside, Angel hauled the man to his feet and pulled the bag off, staring grimly at the beaten face of Drogyn.

"Thank you…" Drogyn gasped weakly. "Thank you…"

Stuck for anything else to do, Angel could only lean forward to bite Drogyn on the throat, taking a deep drink while keeping track of the amount of blood ingested as he slipped one of the tracking devices the SGC had given him into Drogyn's pocket. Activating the device as he stepped away from his former friend, he turned around to hurl Drogyn into the fire, turning to roar at the robed men as Drogyn's body struck the fire.

Based on what Doctor Jackson had told him about the tracker he'd just given Drogyn, and assuming that they were keeping as close an eye on him as they claimed, Angel could only hope that they'd managed to get Drogyn out of the fire while he was keeping the robed men distracted. If they managed to teleport Drogyn to their ship in time, it was possible that he could be treated for his burns and bloodloss while everyone down here assumed that the fire had destroyed his body.

It wasn't a perfect plan, but it was the best he could come up with on short notice; so long as it looked as though he'd killed Drogyn, his initiation should go fairly smoothly from here on in…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those wanting to know, the 304 that's over Los Angeles is the ship that will become the _Sin Tzu_ , as referenced in the _Atlantis_ finale; I'm assuming that, since the ships themselves have to be constructed in secret, they're put together in the form of various rooms and compartments being constructed on Earth and then sent up into orbit to be assembled into the final product, so some areas, such as the transporters, will be available for use even if the ship itself isn't ready to go anywhere yet.


	16. The True Fate of Winifred Burkle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To anyone wondering about Drogyn, Angel's plan worked and he's safe; I'll cover that in more detail in the next chapter

Spike had known from the beginning that revealing his continued existence to any of the old Sunnydale gang was going to be a complicated process, and that was before they learned what he'd been doing with his spare time since he'd been restored. He'd spoken briefly with Angel to find out where everyone else in the Sunnydale gang had gone during their last meeting, so he at least knew that he probably wouldn't have to worry about anyone else dropping in if he spoke to just one of them in particular, but that didn't make it any easier when he found himself faced with an extremely angry witch when Willow stormed into the meeting room they'd set aside for this first meeting at one of the SGC's offsite facilities.

"Hey, Red," Spike said, trying not to think about the fact that Willow's roots were currently black; if he acted like nothing was wrong, he might be able to calm her down-

"' _Hey_ '?" Willow repeated, raising one hand and slamming him against the wall in frustration. "You've been away for over a year, letting us all think that you were _dead_ , and all you have to say for yourself is 'hey'?"

"I had a lot to deal with-" Spike began, suddenly grateful that he'd convinced SG-1 to let him make first contact on his own; clearly the Initiative was still a sore point with the humans as well as the demons.

"Like working for the _Initiative_?" Willow spat. "After the mess they made of everything in Sunnydale-?"

"They're _not_ the Initiative, Red; their area of expertise is _totally_ different!" Spike protested, once again surprised at his willingness to defend people he'd known for such a relatively short time. "They're not here to fight demons or vamps or anything like that; I can't explain what-!"

"And why the _Hell_ should I trust that?" Willow asked. "What are you even _doing_ asking for my _help_ now?"

"Because I need your help to save someone's soul," Spike replied solemnly.

After staring at him for a few moments, Willow stepped back and released her magical grip on him, allowing him to fall to the ground.

"OK," she said, looking grimly at him. "You're still a jerk, but I think you went through enough after you got _your_ soul back to not joke about that kind of thing…"

"Thanks," Spike smiled at her, before his expression became more serious as he reached into his pocket. "Just so you're clear, if you're going to get further details, you… kinda need to sign this."

"A non-disclosure agreement?" Willow asked, scanning the document in surprise. "What's this-?"

"You'll find out when you sign it," Spike explained, shrugging awkwardly as Willow looked sceptically at him. "Look, you can only be given so much of the big picture when you don't need to know it; can't you trust that I wouldn't be working for these sods if I didn't believe they were on the level?"

After another few moments of staring probingly at him, Willow signed the document in front of her and handed it back to Spike.

"So, what's the situation?" she asked.

"A friend of Angel's was possessed by an Old One a few months back," Spike explained. "We managed to save her soul by extracting it before the Old One could consume it, but we need you to… well, we need you to put her soul into a clone of her old body."

"Clone?" Willow repeated, looking at Spike incredulously. "Giles said… but he thought Angel was… you can make _clones_?"

"Not me personally, but the group I'm with, yeah," Spike said. "They had to make a few changes to the process so that the clone wouldn't develop its own personality before we were ready to put the soul in, but it's all ready now; that's why we called you."

Willow looked at him in confusion for a moment, before she shrugged and smiled.

"Well," she said, a tentative grin spreading across her face as she looked at him, "on the bright side, I've known you for long enough to know that you wouldn't make up something that insane if you were trying to trick me… and I can't work out what kind of _other_ scenario would explain all this."

"Thanks," Spike said, smiling slightly at her before he looked at her in a more serious manner. "So, can you do it?"

"Restore her soul, you mean?" Willow asked, nodding thoughtfully as she considered the question. "Well, the original curse used on Angel was tailored explicitly to ensure that the soul would be the dominant spiritual entity once it was restored, as well as the casters wanting to make sure that it targeted _Angel_ specifically rather than just any vampire in the area, but give me a little time and I think I can work something out… it shouldn't be too hard; I've been dealing with a couple of necromancers recently and we are just trying to restore a live body to its natural souled state…"

As Willow pulled out a pad of paper and began to make a series of quick notes, Spike wasn't sure if he should give Willow and Daniel a chance to talk; Daniel might be in a committed relationship with Sam now, and Willow might be gay, but he suddenly had a feeling that these two could have had _real_ chemistry in other circumstances.

* * *

  
Walking back into his office, Angel tried to resist the urge to rub his chest where the Circle had 'branded' him; it had gotten him inside the organisation, but he'd be happy to get that thing removed as soon as the opportunity arose, assuming all their plans worked out.

Actually, after all the effort he'd put into getting inside the Circle, the revelation of who was involved in the organisation was almost anti-climactic. He'd already speculated that Cyvus Vail and Sebassis were involved, Izzerial had been far too comfortable bringing them up to not be a member from the beginning, and Senator Bruckner was almost obvious in hindsight; why would the Circle arrange for a demon to get into the White House if it wasn't one of their own?

As he entered his office and took a punch to the face, he wasn't entirely surprised to find Wes, Gunn and Lorne already waiting for him; after all the clues he'd planted to lead them here, if they hadn't at least guessed what he was up to, he would have been very surprised.

"You should probably stay down," Wesley said, glaring at the vampire.

"Or what?" Angel asked, continuing with his current pretence as he got to his feet. "Careful; you don't want to get yourselves hurt."

"We know what you've been doing," Gunn said scathingly. "Giving up the baby to the Fell Brethren, working for Senator Bitch, trying to take out Drogyn to cover up what you did to Fred. And for what? To get in bed with the Circle of the Black Thorn?"

"So you figured it out," Angel said.

"Yeah, a little singing from a jailbird we know... and loathe," Lorne added.

"Lindsey?" Angel said, slightly surprised that the team had gone to him of their own free will. "And you believe him?"

"He didn't have a reason to lie," Wesley said firmly.

"Doesn't need one," Angel countered.

"Unlike you?"

"What I do here is my business," Angel said, walking towards Wesley despite the shotgun aimed at his chest; bullets might not hurt him as much as it would a regular person, but shotguns would still be a serious problem. "You don't like how I conduct it, you can leave... before I kill you."

"Kill us?" Wesley noted. "Hard to believe we're having trouble trusting you."

"Just telling it like it is," Angel said.

"Then we have a problem," Wesley said, as he cocked his shotgun.

"I guess we do," Angel confirmed.

With that said, he grabbed the shotgun barrel and forced it away while kicking Wesley to the ground, following it up by striking Gunn in the head with the barrel of the shotgun as the street hunter raised his sword for a charge. Lorne's subsequent attempt to shoot him with an arrow only struck him in the shoulder, but it was enough to make Angel drop the shotgun, even if he quickly countered by disarming Wesley of his now-drawn pistol with a swift kick before he grabbed Lorne as a hostage.

"Are we done?" the vampire asked, looking at his team.

"Let him go," Wesley said firmly.

"You don't give the orders," Angel glared at the ex-Watcher. "Lorne, pull this thing out of me… _easy_ ; not in a great mood."

As Lorne pulled the arrow out, Angel smiled inwardly at the opportunity that had just been presented to him; with all of his allies in one place, this was probably the best chance he'd ever have to tell them the truth…

"Good," he said. "Now, let's finish this."

With those words, he pulled out the crystal he'd prepared for this kind of situation, called out the command word, and watched in satisfaction as a force pulsed through the room.

"All right," he said, as he released his grip on Lorne while Wes and Gunn looked at each other in confusion, "we've got six minutes."

"Until what?" Wesley asked.

"The glamour collapses," Angel explained. "As far as anyone outside this room is concerned, we're still at each other's throats."

"Aren't we?"

"Look, we don't have a lot of time here, so I'm gonna have to make this short," Angel said, looking around urgently at his friends. "Everything you think you know, everything you've heard, is a lie."

"Why should we believe you?" Gunn asked.

"Because I'm the one who told it," Angel continued. "Read any good books lately?"

"You sent us the message?" Wesley asked.

"And the assassin to kill Drogyn," Angel confirmed; he might as well be as honest as he could as fast as he could.

"So that bit was true?" Lorne asked.

"I knew Drogyn could handle himself," Angel clarified. "I told the assassin just enough to lead Drogyn to _think_ I played a part in resurrecting Illyria. I figured he'd come here looking for allies against me."

"Why would you want us to believe you killed Fred?" Wesley asked.

"Because I needed to make sure nobody realised what I was doing until I could bring her back," Angel said.

If it was possible, Wesley's glare became even angrier than it had been.

"You _dare_ -?" he began.

"Fred's safe," Angel said grimly. "When Spike's friends came to visit us, Doctor Jackson and Colonel Carter revealed that they could create a clone of Fred's body as a means of saving her life, and Doctor Jackson made a suggestion that allowed me to extract her soul before Illyria could consume it."

"You extracted her _soul_?" Lorne asked.

"I dealt with a black market that dealt in souls my first year in Los Angeles; Wolfram & Hart had kept some of the equipment from the market, and I used it to remove Fred's soul and put it in a container," Angel explained quickly. "It's been left with the Burkles for safe-keeping since Spike and his friends left; I've been told that Spike's called in Willow to move Fred's soul into the clone as soon as possible."

"Incredible…" Wesley said, looking at Angel in stunned astonishment. "You did… all that… for Fred?"

"I had a chance to save her and get inside the Circle," Angel said solemnly. "I had to try it."

"All this to get inside the Black Thorn?" Gunn asked, looking more sceptically at the vampire.

"They needed to believe my own people didn't trust me anymore," Angel continued. "They needed to believe a person as good and as pure as Drogyn considered me an enemy. It was the only way to gain their confidence."

"So this whole evil Angel thing's been a big scamola?" Lorne asked, as he rubbed at his sore neck. "Huh; I smell Oscar."

"When did this all start?" Gunn asked.

"Two months ago, with a kiss," Angel said, recalling that last meeting with Cordelia a few months ago, just a month before that fateful reunion with Spike. "Although it didn't hit me until later that night."

"Cordelia gave you her visions?" Wesley asked.

"One-shot deal," Angel clarified. "She put me on the path, showed me where the real powers are, but I couldn't see who they were. When Spike's friends told me that they could save her, I decided to use the _appearance_ of Fred's death to keep her safe and give us a chance at escape while I set it up to get an invite into their world… and it worked. I'm in. I've seen the faces of evil; I _know_ who the real powers in the apocalypse are."

"So all that 'power tilts the scales' crap…?" Gunn asked.

"It's true," Angel acknowledged. "We're in a machine; that machine's gonna be here long after our bodies are dust. The Senior Partners will always exist in one form or another because mankind is weak."

"Uh, do you want me to point my crossbow at him, 'cause I think he's gonna start talking about ants again?" Lorne put in.

"We're weak," Angel continued. "The powerful control everything… except our will to choose. Look, Lindsey's a pathetic halfwit, but he was right about one thing; heroes don't accept the way the world is. The Senior Partners may be eternal, but we can make their existence painful."

"You want to take them on?" Wesley asked.

"We're in a machine; the Black Thorn runs it," Angel clarified. "We can bring their gears to a grinding halt, even if it's just for a moment."

"Uh… wouldn't that kind of be a suicide run?" Lorne asked.

"Normally, it would be," Angel said, before he smiled at his team. "But how would you all feel about relocating to Atlantis afterwards?"

" _Atlantis_?" all three of them repeated.

"The lost city?" Wesley asked, looking at Angel incredulously.

"Long story short, turns out that Atlantis was built by aliens, was relocated to a different galaxy, and is now controlled by a special program set up by the Air Force almost a decade ago," Angel explained. "I'll give you more details later, but right now, you need to be clear on this; if we do this, we would be killing every. _Single_. _Member_. Of the Black Thorn, and we can't do that and stay on Earth if we want to stay alive. We do this, the Senior Partners will rain their full wrath to try and make an example of us; I'm talking full-on hell, not the basic fire-and-brimstone kind we're used to."

"We know the drill," Gunn began.

"No, you don't," Angel countered, wanting to be sure that they all understood what he was asking of them before they committed to anything. "Ten to one, we're gone when the smoke clears if I'm wrong and Spike's friends don't pull through; the Partners will do everything in their power to destroy us. So… I need you to be sure. Power endures; we can't bring down the Senior Partners, but for one bright, shining moment, we can show them that they don't own us. You need to decide, for yourselves, if that's worth dying for. I can't order you to do this. I can't do it without you."

He stood in silence as he looked around at the rest of the team, giving them a moment to process what he was asking of them before he spoke again.

"So we'll vote," he continued. "As a team. Think about what I'm asking you to do, think about what I'm asking you to give."

For a moment, the room was silent as the four of them exchanged glances, until Wesley broke the silence.

"Fred… Fred's safe?" he asked, his voice trembling as he looked at Angel.

"I saw her soul after I extracted it," Angel confirmed. "It's been with the Burkles since… it happened… and Spike's friends assured me that her new body is ready for the soul to be restored."

After spending another moment staring at the vampire, Wesley nodded.

"Considering what I kept from you before," he said as he smiled briefly at Angel, "I would be a hypocrite to be angry that you kept this from me for far better reasons. If you think I'll see her again after all this… I'm in."

"I'm in," Gunn said, smiling slightly. "An offer to go to Atlantis? Who'd turn that down?"

"Sounds like a wild ride," Lorne confirmed as he held up his own hand. "Should be interesting, anyway."

"Then we're all agreed," Angel said, smiling gratefully at his friends.

After everything he'd had to do over the last few months, it was a relief to be honest with them all once again.

"It'll be a shift, but we're in," Lorne said with a slight smile.

"We taking 'em all at once?" Gunn asked.

"Can't," Angel said firmly. "The Circle of the Black Thorn is the most powerful group in this plane of existence. Together, they'd vaporize us, but separated, they're just demons."

"When do we make our move?" Wesley asked, slinging his shotgun over his shoulder as Angel returned his pistol.

"Soon," the vampire said. "In the meantime, we have to keep up the infighting; the Circle needs to believe we're coming apart at the seams."

"What about Illyria?" Gunn asked.

"And if she hasn't consumed Fred's soul during her rebirth-" Lorne asked.

"Most likely she's been tapping into Fred's memories," Angel speculated, before he looked at Gunn. "And believe me, I recognise that she'd be an asset in this fight, but can we trust that she'll come down on our side?"

"Trust me, she's housebroken," Lorne smiled. "She was babysitting Drogyn-"

"She was with Drogyn?" Angel asked.

"They were getting along well enough-" Lorne began.

"You have to get over there now," Angel interjected.

"Why?" Wesley asked. "What is it?"

"The Circle selected Drogyn as my final victim to prove that I'd gone over to their side," Angel explained. "If Illyria was with him, she could be hurt-"

"And Drogyn?" Gunn asked, walking up to glare at Angel, just as the six-minute mental timer Angel had been keeping since he activated the glamour ran out. Seizing the opportunity, Angel punched Gunn in the face, sending his friend staggering back as Marcus Hamilton walked into the room.

"Sorry," Hamilton said, looking around the room with a slight smile. "Didn't know you were… in conference."

"I was just making a closing statement, unless someone didn't hear me," Angel said, shoving Gunn towards the door before he grabbed Wesley's arm. "And remember, Wes; Illyria's your responsibility. Make sure she doesn't get twitchy."

"Well, you've got yourself a problem," Hamilton noted as Angel closed the door on his friends.

"Nothing you have to worry about," Angel said, shifting back into his colder demeanour as he looked at his liaison.

"Oh, not me," Hamilton clarified. "Your new friends; the Black Thorn. They're very concerned."

"Tell them to send me a memo," Angel noted as he sat back down behind his desk. "I'm busy trying to run a business."

"You can tell them yourself. They want to see you right now," Hamilton grinned, before he turned towards the door. "No rest for the wicked."

Angel wasn't sure about that last statement, but he had seen enough to know that, if the Circle wanted to see him, it almost certainly wasn't going to be good news for him.

He just hoped this wouldn't take too long; he needed to check on the status of Fred's clone as soon as possible if he was going to assure his people that things were under control…


	17. Last Day on Earth

As he sat in his car, driving towards the apartment Wesley had set aside for keeping an eye on Illyria away from the heart of the firm, Angel had no idea how to feel about what had just happened.

He had signed away every last chance he might have at regaining his humanity in order to deliver a final temporary blow against the Circle of the Black Thorn, but he was about to deliver the most powerful blow he could unleash against the forces he'd been fighting ever since he came to Los Angeles; whether he was human or not didn't matter.

Besides, right now he had more than enough to focus on as he tried to put the pieces together for the upcoming showdown. Dispatching Harmony to distract Hamilton might be a risky gambit, but he felt he'd managed to find the right way to use it; if she was loyal to him, she'd keep Hamilton out of the way, and if she was planning to betray him, he'd fed her false information about his planned target and she'd probably keep Hamilton occupied anyway.

Offering Lindsey a part in the final assault might be a greater risk, but he could at least be sure that the former lawyer wanted to strike back against the Partners just as much as he did after everything they'd done to him. He'd taken care to provide Colonel Carter with a detailed dossier of some of the legal scams and tricks Lindsey had perfected over the years, taking advantage of his access to the firm's archives to collect everything he could about Lindsey's career as quickly as possible. Manipulating the law in that manner might work so long as you didn't get caught, but once his deeds were exposed, Lindsey would find nothing more waiting for him than a special prison cell designed to negate any kind of enhancement he might be using to enhance his own abilities.

He might not trust that Lindsey would ever be part of the solution, but he wasn't going to leave Lorne with the responsibility of dealing with that guy when the Pylean's faith in him was so comparatively fragile; Fred's death had been a serious blow to Lorne, and Angel had to wonder how far he might have gone if he'd failed to save her…

Pushing such dark thoughts out of his mind, Angel parked his car in a suitably dark alley and pulled out his cellphone, dialling the contact number provided; if he was going to do this, he was going to make sure everything was covered.

" _Hello_?" Colonel Carter's voice responded.

"First things first; did you get that guy I sent to you?" Angel asked, only just able to contain his apprehension at the thought that his last gambit hadn't worked out…

" _You mean the stranger you had us beam into the infirmary a couple of hours ago_?" Carter asked, sounding slightly amused at her own statement before becoming more serious. " _He had to have treatment for his burns, and he'd sustained a few broken bones, but we were able to treat the worst of the damage, and he's already started to heal from the rest of it; it might take a week or two, but he'll be back to full strength soon enough_."

"Good," Angel said, sighing in relief; he'd fill her in on what to do with Drogyn once the main issue of the Circle had been dealt with. "And… how's Fred?"

" _I just got off the phone with Spike_ ," Carter replied, sounding like she was smiling now. " _She's still unconscious, but Miss Rosenberg assures us all that everything went according to plan; your friend's… soul… is in its new body, and Miss Rosenberg will be staying with her for the next few hours until she regains consciousness_."

"That's… good," Angel said- if Willow was certain that Fred was going to recover, that was more than enough evidence for him- before he moved on to the real reason for this call. "I have the identities of the Circle."

" _Anyone we can_ -"

"I don't think we'll need help," Angel said, his tone grim. "Most of them are fairly straightforward demons, but there's one who's currently acting as Senator Helen Bruckner; most of her staff are vampires, so there aren't going to be any human casualties, but if you could-"

" _We'll make sure any humans in her offices know to get out in time_ ," Carter reassured him. " _Do you need any help_ -?"

"Not at the moment; my team are going after them all tonight, and I'm fairly sure I've worked out a plan to take them out while they're all divided," Angel said. "Like I said before, I'd prefer to keep your people off the Partners' radar if they aren't there already; just so long as you can get us out when we're done, that should be fine."

" _Of course_ ," Carter said, before she fell silent for a moment. Angel briefly wondered if she'd hung up on him before something glowed in the passenger seat, fading away to reveal five objects that looked like long, thick pens.

"What are these?" he asked, reaching over to pick one of them up.

" _Emergency recall devices_ ," Carter explained. " _They're similar to the system we gave you earlier; if you or your team need to be collected before the final confrontation you've planned, just press the button on the top of the pen and you'll be beamed to safety; it's set up to ensure that you'll be transmitted directly to medical facilities_."

"Thanks," Angel said, slipping the objects into his pocket before he ended the call, got out of the car and headed for the door to Wes's old apartment, set aside as their designated rendezvous for the upcoming plan.

Walking into the apartment, Angel was relieved to see that Illyria was still alive, even if she'd clearly taken a beating that Wes and Gunn were trying to treat as she lay on his couh; Fred might have a new body now, but he still felt some sympathy for Illyria's body due to its original owner.

"How is she?" the vampire asked.

"She needs more care than what we have available right now," Wesley said, before he looked more curiously at Angel. "I don't suppose Spike's friends-"

"They can't do too much too fast in case we end up tipping the Partners off that we have something else in the pipeline," Angel said apologetically. "You'll have to treat her back at your place if you're going to help her."

"And how much good is that gonna be if Hamilton makes another house call?" Gunn asked.

"Hamilton did this?" Angel asked, re-evaluating his plan to go after the liaison; if he could deliver that kind of assault, the guy was clearly more of a threat than he'd anticipated…

"You didn't know?" Lorne asked.

"I only knew that he'd brought Drogyn to my initiation; I didn't know that Illyria was with Drogyn when Hamilton attacked," Angel clarified.

"And Drogyn's OK?" Gunn asked.

"He's safe," Angel said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the 'recall devices', handing one each to the rest of his team. "Spike's friend gave me these for you all."

"What are they?" Wesley asked.

"They're how I was able to save Drogyn," Angel explained. "I don't know how it works, but they have a… well, some kind of teleportation device."

"'Device'?" Lorne repeated, even as he took the pen from Angel. "As in… it's _not_ magic?"

"They used it to demonstrate what they could do by taking me up to their spaceship; I'd call that science," Angel said, grateful to be sharing good news with his friends for once. "I slipped one into Drogyn's pocket before I threw him into a fire; according to Colonel Carter, they got him into treatment in time and he should be better soon enough."

"OK," Gunn said, looking around the room in a slightly bemused manner before he focused on Angel. "So we just got a touch of sci-fi in our lives as well as the familiar horror… what's the plan now?"

"We kill the Circle tonight," Angel said firmly, before he looked around the room with a slight smile. "But before we do that, there's something else you should all do for yourselves; take the day off."

"The day off?" Lorne repeated.

"Angel," Gunn said, looking uncertainly at the vampire, "if we're planning to assassinate the power elite of the apocalypse tonight, shouldn't we be cowboying up?"

"We'll be ready," Angel said firmly. "But however this plays out, you probably won't be back in Los Angeles any time soon, so for today, I want you guys to go out. Live. Do whatever you want. Live the day like it's your last… because, one way or another, it probably is."

His team looked at him uncertainly for a few moments, but soon nodded in acceptance. Gunn and Lorne walked out after they had confirmed the time of their meeting, but Wesley stayed, looking uncertainly at Angel.

"You want to talk to Fred?" Angel asked, guessing what the ex-Watcher wanted most.

"Yes," Wesley said, nodding solemnly at the vampire. "Can you…?"

"Here," Angel said, bringing up the relevant number on his phone and showing it to Wesley. "Call that number, and you'll be put through to Colonel Samantha Carter; she's the one responsible for supervising the creation of Fred's new body. I can't guarantee that you'll be able to talk to her- the last I heard, she was still unconscious- but… well, so long as you're discreet about getting there, you might be able to see her."

"Thank you," Wesley said, his hand slightly trembling as he entered the number into his own phone, before another thought occurred to him. "Illyria-"

"I'll… talk to her," Angel said, looking over at the weakened Old One for a moment before he looked back at Wesley. "Could you… give us some privacy?"

* * *

  
"The shell still exists?" Illyria said, looking at Angel incredulously as he finished his explanation of the full events surrounding her resurrection.

"Her soul was extracted from the body before you could… affect it, and then it was moved into a duplicate of her existing form," Angel explained. "I'm not clear on how they created the new body myself, so don't ask; I just know that it worked out."

Illyria sat in silent contemplation for a moment, looking contemplatively at the vampire, until she spoke again.

"Your plans are ambitious, half-breed," she said, looking at him in an appraising manner. "Not only have you saved your lieutenant from me, but you now seek to make a move against the power of the Wolf, Ram and Hart despite their centuries of growth, and then intend to relocate to the city of the Ancient Ones…"

"You know about Atlantis?" Angel said, looking at her in surprise.

"I was one of the first to be released into this plane of existence when the Ancient Ones' experiments created the opportunity for us to enter this world; their fabled city had moved on by that point, but many of their number remained here, and we heard talk of it when we cared to listen," Illyria explained, her gaze shifting from thoughtful to firm as she stared at Angel. "And you claim that your nation's leaders have found it?"

"They've had a team working out there for the last few years, and they all think that we could bring something new to the table if we agreed to work there ourselves," Angel explained, noting and dismissing his surprise at Illyria's wider knowledge; with the loss of her power, she must have been spending more time 'assimilating' Fred's remaining knowledge.

"I would be expected to work with the heirs to the knowledge of the Ancient Ones?" Illyria said, looking at Angel with a contemplative expression. "That would be… intriguing."

"And there's a whole new race we'd need to assist them with," Angel added, remembering the description provided for him of the primary villains in Atlantis's galaxy. "I can't say what kind of authority you'll have there, but they'll know what you are and what you can offer in terms of your power and knowledge; if nothing else, they'll… respect you."

The former God-King sat in silence for a moment as she looked at Angel, clearly giving his offer some thought, before she nodded in resolution.

"I will fight for you," she said firmly. "I've been broken and humiliated by this 'Circle of the Black Thorn', and I will return in kind every blow, every sting. I will shred my adversaries, and pull their eyes out just enough to turn them towards their mewing, mutilated faces… and then I will accompany you to this new world to learn what I may become in the absence of my power."

"Great," Angel said, nodding awkwardly at Illyria out of a lack of any better response to make to that statement.

It might not be the kind of declaration of loyalty he'd been hoping for, but considering the odds they were facing and what Illyria had been before her current state, he'd take what he could get.

"See you this evening," he said, lost for anything better to say as he stood up and left the apartment; he had faith that Wesley would keep an eye on Illyria for the next few hours, even if he was suddenly able to see Fred, and he had his own appointment before his last night on Earth went by.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before anyone asks, Gunn and Lorne's day off was the same as in canon, Angel went to talk to Connor after this, and Wesley spent his time talking with Sam and the rest of her team about Fred; nothing overly significant took place that you haven't seen already in the show, so I thought it best to skip that so we can get to the main action for the next chapter.


	18. Going to Face the Circle

As last days on Earth went, Angel wasn't sure if he could honestly say he'd done everything he wanted to do, but he felt like he'd dealt with the most important things. Ensuring that Illyria would assist them in the confrontation had been surprisingly straightforward, and his conversation with Connor, while initially awkward, had moved on fairly neatly once his son had confirmed that he had regained his memory and still appreciated what Angel had done for him.

It wasn't much of a list, but considering how strained things were between him and the former Sunnydale residents right now, he hadn't wanted to waste time trying to get in touch with anyone beyond leaving a warning message in case things went wrong and both his back-up plans failed.

It seemed like such a sad thing to say about the people who'd helped him start on his path towards his real destiny, but considering that he'd signed that away, he supposed that it was appropriate; cut all ties to the past and move on, relatively unburdened, into the waiting future.

Right now, however, with the day over and all business dealt with, all that mattered was preparing everyone for their upcoming battle.

"This may come out a little pretentious," he said, looking around his friends as they sat in Wesley's apartment before his gaze focused on Wesley, "but… one of you will betray me. Wes, Vail's the sorcerer of the bunch; you know that game, you've seen his place, and he believes you'd make a play for my spot."

"That's not very flattering," Wesley noted.

"It'll get you in the door," Angel said, before he noticed Wesley's slight smile. "Are you ready?"

"I picked up a thing or two while I was… visiting Fred," Wesley said, the slight gleam in his eyes the only sign that he was 'waking up' from the grief that had settled over him since Illyria's resurrection. "I appreciate that Vail is a very powerful sorcerer, but… I think I have a trick or two he won't be expecting."

"Good," Angel said, deciding not to ask for more information before he turned to the blue woman. "Illyria, Izzerial the Devil and three other members of the circle dine together almost every night."

"I'll make trophies of their spines," Illyria said firmly.

"Good to have you on the team," Angel said, stuck for anything better to say to that proclamation. "Gunn."

"Yo," Gunn responded.

"Your friend Senator Brucker has a campaign office in west L.A.," the vampire explained. "You already know she's pure hellspawn, and she tends to surround herself with vampires."

"I was hoping it'd be vamps," Gunn smiled. "Haven't dusted nearly enough this year- no offence."

"None taken," Angel said, before he looked at Lorne. "Lorne, your goal is to get into the home of the Fell Brethren and rescue the baby; I've made arrangements with Spike's friends at the SGC to take out the organisation once you're out of the building."

"So I'm just there to save the kid?" Lorne asked, smiling despite the grim nature of the current discussion. "I can do that."

"My thoughts exactly," Angel confirmed. "Lindsey's going after the Sahrvin clan and their representative in the Circle, but I've provided the SGC with everything the firm had on Lindsey's past legal tricks; once the clan's dead, Lindsey's off to jail on numerous charges."

"Nice," Gunn noted, nodding at Angel in approval.

"Is that the only reason you brought him in?" Wesley asked.

"Best to get him out of the picture while we're all here," Angel confirmed, before he finished his summary. "Archduke Sebassis has over forty thousand demons at his command. The other members of the council fear him. He's the key player, so he's mine."

"So I'd guess we don't go back to the office after this?" Gunn asked, after a moment's pause as they considered their instructions.

"The alley just north of the Hyperion," Angel confirmed. "Everyone who makes it meets there. If we do any damage at all, the senior partners are gonna rain hell on us, so be ready."

"And our pick-up?" Lorne asked.

"Needs to wait until the last minute," Angel said grimly. "We have to give the impression that we were killed in the same attack that took out most of whatever's sent after us, or this doesn't work."

The reminder that, either way, this would be their last day on Earth was a humbling thought, but they could at least be optimistic that they had a chance to get out of this alive, rather than mounting a final suicidal stand.

"Day went by fast, huh?" Gunn noted, as he and Wesley pulled on their coats and headed for the door.

"Try not to die," Illyria noted to Gunn. "You are not unpleasing to my eyes."

"Uh, thanks," Gunn said, looking awkwardly at Illyria. "You… try not to die, too."

After the two men shook hands one last time, they walked out of the apartment, Illyria and Lorne close behind them, leaving Angel to stare grimly at the four walls around him.

He'd spent the better part of five years in this city, and now he was planning to move on from the whole _planet_ , condemning himself to an eternity as a vampire champion of a different galaxy, in a city created by an ancient alien race.

Still, as much as a part of him disliked the idea of owing Spike anything, he had to admit that this new life sounded like it'd be kind of fun…

As though he'd been hit by a wrecking ball, Angel knew that he couldn't leave for his last stand just yet.

He might have left her a message warning her about the upcoming fight, but he'd still avoided saying one very important thing to her…

* * *

  
Once he was back in his car and out on the street, Angel parked a short distance between the apartment and the office block to attend to his final business.

Maybe this wasn't the best time to call her, when as far as he knew she was involved with someone else now in a happy relationship- even if he thought the guy in question was a complete dick- but this could be his last chance to tell her what he wanted to say.

"Hey, Buffy," he said, already wondering if this was a mistake before he forced that thought aside; whatever might be about to happen, he wanted her to know this. "I know I already called to warn you, but I just wanted to let you know… well, I wanted to assure you of two things; I never lost sight of what I learned when I first saw you… and, no matter what else has changed since I left Sunnydale, in almost three hundred years, you are still the first person I've ever really loved."

It might have seemed cruel once he'd said it, but he felt that it was important for Buffy to know that, even if he couldn't explain himself to her in person.

With those last words spoken, he terminated the call and resumed his drive; the sooner he could provoke Hamilton into a fight, the sooner he could put that bastard down…


	19. Breaking the Circle

Walking into his office, Angel had to admit, of everything he was going to leaving once this assault on the Circle was over, this building wasn't one of them. The necro-tempered glass allowing him to experience some form of sunlight was nice, but otherwise the whole place just emphasised how far he was from the night-time people he'd one told Doyle it was his mission to help…

"Hamony," he said, nodding at his secretary as she sat at the desk. "Where's Hamilton?"

"Records room," the blonde smiled. "I've been keeping him busy like you said."

"Good," Angel said, as he continued towards the office; he was fairly sure that she was going to set him up, but if she was on his side, he at least knew where Hamilton was now. "I gotta stop by the penthouse, but have my car ready, and just… make sure Hamilton stays busy."

"No problemo, Boss," the younger vampire smiled as Angel entered the elevator. Heading up to his private apartment- another thing he didn't like; it might be comfortable, but it was an excessive style of comfort- Angel headed for the knife he'd laid out earlier; this particular scheme might just be a smokescreen, but he had to make it look good.

He had just picked up the knife from the box when the door opened from behind him, prompting him to turn around as the form of his new liaison came in.

"Going out?" Hamilton asked.

"Why?" Angel countered, taking a moment to keep his options open; the guy being here _could_ still just be a coincidence. "You wanna order in?"

"I hear you already have plans," Hamilton noted with a satisfied grin as he glanced at the knife. "Gonna take that when you visit Sebassis? Why don't I think that's a gift?"

With further deception clearly not an option, Angel lashed out at Hamilton, only for the liaison to intercept his punch and deliver one of his own, the blow leaving Angel temporarily disorientated. Before he could regain his focus, Hamilton grabbed his jacket and threw him with such force that he was sent flying through the penthouse window, falling a few stories before he hit the glass ceiling of the main lobby below him. Even with his fall slowed by the glass, Angel didn't have the time to adjust his position before he hit the ground, but at least he could feel that nothing had been broken.

"Oh my God!" Harmony said in an exaggeratedly shocked tone of voice.

"Hamilton," Angel muttered, as he forced himself back to his feet.

"He's not my boyfriend!" Harmony protested (That much Angel believed, even if Harmony probably thought it was the case). "I certainly didn't betray you!"

"Drop the act, Harm," Angel said firmly as he stood up.

"It's not an act; I'm really this nervous-!"

"I knew you'd turn on me, I just didn't know when," Angel clarified.

"What do you mean you knew?" Harmony protested indignantly.

"Loyalty isn't really high on your list," Angel noted; one thing he was going to be glad about once this was over was getting Harmony out of his hair.

"Oh, is that right?" Harmony protested, indignantly folding her arms as she walked out from behind the desk. "I'll have you know I am damn loyal, dumbass!"

"You betrayed me," Angel stated as he walked towards her. "You are betraying me now, even as we are talking."

"Because you never had any confidence in me!" Harmony protested.

"No, because you have no soul!" Angel countered.

"I _would_ if you would have confidence in me!" Harmony retorted.

Angel didn't have time to get into that kind of debate; even if it was possible to adapt his curse to give Harmony a soul, he doubted he would have ever actually done it based on what he remembered Buffy saying about the girl from the old days in Sunnydale.

"Get out of the building," he said firmly.

"Are you firing me?" Harmony asked.

"Among other things, yes," Angel said; it was clearly just easier to stick with the essentials and tolerate Harmony's insane perspective rather than try to make her understand the situation.

"Do you think I could get a recommendation?"

"Yeah, OK," Angel said after a moment's thought; it was a bizarre request to make in the current circumstances, but it was easier than getting into another bizarre argument, and Harmony was a good secretary most of the time, even if she was _very_ annoying as a person…

"But see, if you don't so much live as the other thing, how-?" Harmony began.

"It's already in the desk," Angel indicated the appropriate side for Harmony to check.

"You're the best!" Harmony grinned, hurrying over to grab the reference as Hamilton emerged from the office, walking firmly towards Angel.

The vampire barely heard Harmony's last parting comment before she ran from the building; his attention was all on Hamilton now…

"So," Hamilton said.

"Yeah," Angel retorted, before lashing out at Hamilton's chest with a punch that felt like he was striking a brick wall for all the impact he'd had on his adversary.

"Did that hurt at all?" he asked the liaison as he flexed his hand.

"Little bit," Hamilton said, before grabbing Angel by the throat and hauling him up off his feet. "But it's all part of the job."

As Hamilton hurled Angel through the air, Angel tried not to show just how much pain he was in as he struck and shattered the support post before he hit the ground. Unable to do more than wince in agony at the force he'd just been subjected to, Angel found to get back to his feet as he heard Hamilton walking towards him, before the other man reached down to pick him back up.

"The Senior Partners have expended an awful lot of time and resources on you," he said, looking in exasperation at Angel. "Personally, I would have told them not to bother."

Angel didn't even have time to note that he agreed with that assessment before Hamilton had hurled him away once again, sending him crashing into the Wolfram & Hart logo on the upper balcony level.

"You're gutter trash," Hamilton continued as he walked up towards the battered vampire. "And that's where you should have stayed, drinking and whoring your way through an unremarkable life. But the fates stepped in and made you a vampire, with a soul, no less; a champion, a hero of the people… and yet, you still managed to fail everyone around you; Doyle, Cordelia, Fred, they're all gone. Now it's time you followed."

Angel was interrupted from replying when Hamilton grabbed him again and hauled him back up, looking at him with a dismissive glare. "You didn't _really_ think you were going to kill Archduke Sebassis, did you?"

"Two things," Angel said, glaring back at Hamilton; this might be a risk, but however things turned out for him, he wanted one of his opponents to know just how extensively he'd tricked them. "Firstly, despite what your bosses think, Fred is alive."

"What?" Hamilton said, looking at him in surprise.

"And secondly," Angel continued, enjoying the stunned expression on the other man's face, "I already _did_ kill Sebassis; I spiked his drink in the last meeting. I figured that _you_ were the one I needed to be alone with."

"Why?" Hamilton asked, looking sceptically at the vampire. "So I could kill you?"

"Well," Angel said, feeling obligated to be honest in the circumstances, "I thought the fight would be going a little better."

"Ah," Hamilton said, before he hurled Angel back onto the main floor, leaving the vampire struggling to regain his balance before his foe came down again.

God, Eve had never seemed to be anything more than human apart from her undefined connection to the Partners; where did this bastard get that kind of strength…?

* * *

  
"I'm curious," Cyvus Vail said as he sat opposite Wesley at a long dining-table, eating a soup that looked disturbingly like blood with chunks of human flesh in it. "What makes you think I won't kill you where you sit?"

"Because you're smarter than the others," Wesley continued, hoping that Angel had correctly assessed Vail's opinion of him; the sorcerer might seem frail, but if his magical abilities were as powerful as he'd heard, Wesley's best chance was to lull him into a false sense of security before attacking. "Smart enough to have your doubts about Angel, and rightly so. He's...unpredictable, and worse, he has a conscience."

"Well," Vail said, dabbing at his mouth with a napkin, "you make a very persuasive argument."

"Wait," Wesley said, discreetly reaching into his pocket for the weapon he'd received from that 'Colonel Carter' woman earlier. "It gets better."

Before Vail could react, Wesley had pulled the weapon out of his pocket, activated it under the table, and fired three shots at the withered red-skinned creature in front of him. Vail barely had time to stare at him in shock before he seemed to collapse in on himself, his entire body becoming even more withered and decrepit as the blue energy coursed over him before he fell silent.

"Interesting," Wesley noted, raising the weapon that Colonel Carter had identified as a zat-nik-tel to look at it more closely. He'd been informed that three shots with this weapon would disintegrate rather than simply kill the target, but evidently Vail's magical power meant that he was slightly better equipped to cope with the blasts than regular people. Deciding to make sure while Vail was still immobilised, Wesley fired the gun a further three times at the sorcerer, nodding in satisfaction as Vail collapsed into what Wesley could only think of as ash.

"Well," he reflected to himself as he got up from his seat, "that was easy."

It would certainly be something to think about in the future, now that he thought about it; alien science had trumped magic on this occasion, but how would they measure up in other areas?

Whatever else awaited him in their new lives in Atlantis, it was going to be fascinating to learn the answer to _that_ question…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that's Vail dealt with; for the record, I think that he could have deflected the zat blast if he'd expected it, but as it was, even if he couldn't deflect it, his magical energy gave him enough of a resistance to the blasts that he was just knocked out by the first few shots rather than killed immediately, but that was still long enough for Wesley to kill him for good.
> 
> Next chapter will focus on Angel's fight with Hamilton- one thing that I just can't pass over, after all- but I'll also be looking at what SG-1 are up to at this time; hope you enjoy the result


	20. The Circle Falls

As he tried desperately to trade blows with Hamilton, Angel wondered what it was about great strength that seemed to lead to limited combat skills. It wasn't that Hamilton was bad at fighting, but his entire 'strategy' seemed to consist of hitting Angel whenever he got the chance, rather than anything more sophisticated.

Of course, when each punch he delivered felt like getting struck with a train head-on, Angel supposed that nobody really _needed_ to be a more sophisticated fighter with that kind of strength behind them…

"Why do you keep fighting; you signed away your Shanshu!" Hamilton said, looking sarcastically at Angel as he paused for a moment between punches. "There's nothing in it for you anymore!"

"The people… who don't care about anything," Angel panted after he launched another punch with no visible effect, needing to make this statement even if he knew Hamilton wouldn't understand it, "will never understand the people who do."

Angel wasn't entirely surprised at Hamilton's responding punch and dismissive comment about how they wouldn't care about that issue; he just wished that he could do more to respond than lie on the ground trying to collect himself. Even as Hamilton picked up a broken piece of wood from the damaged pillar he'd shattered earlier, Angel was fighting to get back to his feet, but he'd just taken too much punishment too quickly… he needed a few moments to get his metaphorical breath back…

Just as he felt Hamilton grab him by his jacket, something lashed out and Hamilton was sent flying away, leaving Angel looking up in shock at the sight of Connor standing over him.

"Care about that, dress-for-less?" Connor asked, glaring at Hamilton lying on the other side of a shattered glass wall before he gave Angel a hand to pull him back to his feet.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Angel asked, even as he kept his gaze on Hamilton.

"Come on!" Connor said dismissively. "You drop by for a cup of coffee, and the world's not ending? Please!"

Angel wondered what Connor's ability to make that assessment said about his own abilities as a father, but decided that this wasn't the time to talk about that as Hamilton got back to his feet; they had the advantage for the moment, and they had to keep pressing it before the Liaison could get his focus back.

* * *

  
"You know," Cam mused, exchanging glances with the rest of his team as they stood around the bridge of the _Odyssey_ before his gaze focused on Spike, "I'm not sure how I should feel about this."

"What?" Spike said, looking at Mitchell in surprise. "I thought you liked-"

"Hey, I'm all in favour of Atlantis getting access to a vampire after everything you've done for us over the last few months; it's hardly fair if we get all the good stuff back on Earth, after all," Mitchell shrugged, before he sighed and indicated the planet visible through the observation window in front of them with a wave of his hand. "It's just… it's not that I don't trust those guys, but I don't like feeling like we're being pushed to the sidelines for something this big."

"I do not like it either, Colonel Mitchell, but Angel has made it clear that it would draw the attention of the Senior Partners to Stargate Command if we were to take direct action at this time," Teal'c noted, looking solemnly over at Mitchell. "We must have faith that Angel and his team know what they are doing and that they will alert us if the situation calls for our assistance."

" _Hello_?" a voice suddenly said over the ship's radio, the faint sound of something whimpering also audible over the connection. " _This is Lorne calling… the Atlantis guys; anyone there_?"

"This is Colonel Cameron Mitchell," Mitchell said, walking over to activate the radio with a slight smile. "Lorne… you're the guy who sees futures when people sing, right?"

" _Among other talents, yeah_ ," the voice confirmed, sounding slightly more relaxed as he spoke. " _Just thought you should know that I got the baby away from the Fell Brethren, so you can deal with their little hideaway whenever you want_."

"Gotcha," Mitchell said, terminating the call before glancing over at Spike. "Care to do the honours?"

"With pleasure," Spike said, as he moved over to sit at the firing controls. They had received special dispensation from the SGC to use the ship's weapons on Earth territory on this occasion, Angel's tales of the Circle's influence enough to convince the right people that quick, decisive action was needed to deal with the cult in question, but they'd had to adjust the settings on the ship's weapons to ensure that nobody could actually _see_ them firing. While the _Odyssey_ 's actual energy weapons were still limited compared to some ships, they were sophisticated enough for Sam to adjust their energy frequency to a point where the beam was essentially invisible, weakening it to the point where it would be useless in actual battle while still powerful enough to destroy their target.

As Spike pressed the relevant controls, the rest of the team studied the information on the targeting scanners, smiling in satisfaction as the house that had been identified as the home of the Fell Brethren was vapourised in one blast.

"We're going with gas explosion, I take it?" Vala asked as she looked over at the others.

"If it worked for blowing up a giant snake, I think it'll work here," Sam said, smiling briefly at Spike before she glanced over at Daniel. "Talking of cover-ups, you should probably call Agent Barrett; if Lorne's finished, Lindsey McDonald's probably dealt with that Brotherhood by now…"

"And we don't want him getting away to start this up all over again," Daniel said, nodding in grim confirmation as he activated the radio.

So far, everything seemed to be going according to plan, but if they didn't hear from Angel or Charles Gunn soon, SG-1 had to wonder what they were going to do…

* * *

  
As the fight continued through the lobby, Angel wished that he'd actually managed to acquire some kind of weapon from his office; he and Connor were keeping Hamilton on the ropes at the moment, but that wasn't going to last for long…

Their temporary advantage was cut short when Hamilton kicked Angel to the ground before he grabbed Connor and delivered a punishing head-butt, the force of the blow leaving the teenager too dazed to do anything else.

"What is _with_ you people?" the man in the suit said, dismissively hurling Connor into the door of the nearest elevator, swiftly parrying Angel's new blows before throwing him back into the stairs.

"Let me say this as clearly as I can; _you cannot beat me_ ," Hamilton said, looking smugly at Angel as he adjusted his suit as though he was just dealing with an unfortunately troublesome bit of business. "I am a part of them. The Wolf, Ram, and Hart. Their strength flows through my veins. My blood is filled with their ancient power."

 _Blood_ …

There were times when Angel loved the arrogance of the bad guys; the one thing he needed to turn the tables in this fight, and Hamilton just gave it to him without even thinking about it.

"Can you pick out," the vampire said, getting back to his feet and glaring at Hamilton, "the _one_ word there… you probably shouldn't have said?"

Shifting into his vamp face before Hamilton could react, Angel used his renewed strength to lunge towards his adversary, the unexpected manoeuvre at this stage of the fight allowing him to get past Hamilton's defences and bite down on his neck before the other man could counter it. For a moment, Angel revelled in the restored sensation of power as Hamilton's blood flowed down his throat, the strength of the taste surpassing even Angelus's memories of drinking human blood as he felt suddenly invigorated, his injuries seemingly vanishing and his muscles filled with new strength…

As Hamilton forced Angel off with a powerful blow to the chest, Angel suddenly felt a new sense of control compared to his past experiences of being struck by his adversary. Not only aware of his actions, but operating on a heightened sense of awareness of the world around him, Angel turned his impromptu flight into an aerial somersault that ended with him landing on his feet, standing casually in front of his foe.

"Wow," he said, as he wiped a trace of Hamilton's blood from his lip, "you _really_ are full of it."

As Hamilton lashed out at Angel again, he almost seemed to be moving in slow motion compared to his earlier assaults, the vampire neatly ducking under the attack as he smirked at his opponent. "What was that you were saying about ancient power?"

As Hamilton lashed out with another punch, Angel grabbed his arm and punched Hamilton in the ribs, with a force that would have shattered a human's ribcage even if he hadn't drunk Hamilton's blood. The liaison was still standing after the attack, but his next blow to Angel's face only smarted rather than the devastating assault it had felt like earlier, leaving Angel free to launch another counter-attack before his foe grabbed his neck.

"You don't really think you're gonna win this, do you?" Hamilton said scathingly, even though Angel noted with satisfaction that his speech seemed slightly hurried compared to what it had been. "You don't stand a chance. We are legion; we are forever!"

 _Never_.

With that cold thought, Angel broke free of Hamilton's grip, launching a rapid series of punches to his chest and stomach, forcing Hamilton further back before a sweeping kick to the ankles knocked him to the floor.

"Then I guess forever," Angel said, standing over Hamilton to punch him in the face before he could get back to his feet, "just got a hell of a lot shorter."

Before the other man could reply to that statement, Angel unleashed a final powerful punch, the blow striking Hamilton with such force that it forced his head around in a manner that no human's neck should turn. As the satisfying crack of a fractured vertebrae filled the room, Hamilton fell to the ground with a final grunt, his blank eyes staring at nothing as Angel stood over him.

"Is he dead?" Connor asked, as the young man slowly got to his feet near the dented elevator door.

"Yeah, he's dead," Angel confirmed grimly, taking a moment to confirm Hamilton's deceased heartbeat, before the building suddenly started to shake around them, windows cracking and walls rumbling.

"Uh… that's not good, is it?" his son asked.

"Wolfram & Hart," Angel said grimly. "Looks like they're taking the gloves off."

"What do we go?" Connor asked.

"You go home," Angel said firmly; he and his team might have to leave Earth if Spike's friends were telling the truth, but his son still had a chance at a normal life, and Angel was going to ensure he had that. "This is my fight."

"That's some serious macho-!" Connor began indignantly, only to be interrupted as he bent over with a wince of agony while part of the collapsing building fell to the ground near them.

"I have a plan," Angel said firmly, trying to give Connor something of the truth without telling him too much in case the Partners were listening in. "Go home, now."

"They'll destroy you," Connor said.

"As long as you're OK, they can't," Angel said, as the building shook once again, the latest rumble crushing the upper balcony. "Go."

As Connor ran down another hallway, Angel took a brief glance at his office, where Eve was just visible pacing inside it through the glass walls, before he turned to run for the exit.

Whatever he'd promised Lindsey, he had no real interest in keeping Eve safe after some of the crap she'd pulled in the past, and even if she'd resigned/been 'fired' from her role as liaison, he couldn't trust that she didn't still have some kind of link to the Senior Partners that would let her tell them where he and his friends were going.

If she got out of the building before it collapsed, he'd arrange for the SGC to send her to the same prison that they were taking Lindsey; if she didn't, it was no skin off Angel's nose.

"My guy's down," he said, as he quickly dialled the number that Colonel Carter had given him during his trip to the _Odyssey_. "Keep sensors trained on the alley; we'll let you know when we're ready."

Everything had gone to plan so far, but the last stage was where things were going to get _really_ difficult…


	21. The Final Stand of Angel Investigations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record, to those who've read 'After the Fall', I won't be using the idea that the dragon was an unwitting dupe; the fight's not going to last long enough for Angel to come to that realisation, it would be too complicated to explore how he came to that conclusion even if it did, and it's not like they could take the dragon to Atlantis with them anyway.

As he ran down the alley behind the Hyperion, Angel tried not to feel too apprehensive at the lack of anyone else in the area; Hamilton had been tough, but he'd only been one man, and everyone else had far more opponents to deal with…

"You dealt with Sebassis?" a voice suddenly asked from the side, Angel turning around to see Wesley standing in a smaller side-alley, the ex-Watcher apparently unharmed from his confrontation with Vail.

"And Hamilton," Angel confirmed, nodding at Wesley in relief. "You?"

"Vail was simple enough," Wesley said, smiling slightly back at Angel. "Our new associates have some… interesting toys."

"Anyone else here?" Angel asked; he was curious about what Wesley was referring to, but they had bigger priorities right now than talking about what they'd find in Atlantis.

"Not so far," Wesley confirmed, glancing up as the thunder rolled above them. "Well, at least we're going to have a dramatic final stand."

"Damn!" Gunn's voice suddenly yelled, running towards them his hubcap-axe in one hand. "How did I know fang-boy would pull through… 'though English is a nice touch?"

Angel's initial smile when he saw Gunn's approach faltered as Gunn's steps did the same, his voice weakening despite his words.

"You're lucky we're on the same side, dog," Gunn gasped weakly as he approached them. "'Cause I was on fire tonight… My game was tight…"

Angel didn't need enhanced senses to realise that Gunn was in trouble, quickly moving to help him sit on a nearby box as Wesley gave him a quick once-over. Even in the rain, Gunn's bloody hand was obvious as he removed it from his chest, looking shakily at his wounds.

God, Angel hoped this battle wouldn't last too long; if Spike's new friends could save Drogyn after everything the Circle had done to him, Gunn might still have a chance at recovery if he could get medical treatment soon enough…

His anxious thoughts were cut short by the sound of something landing on the ground beside them, but he relaxed when he saw that it was just Illyria.

"My foes are dead," she said, looking at the team in satisfaction. "Are we ready for more violence?"

"Soon enough," Angel said grimly.

"Tricks good here?" Lorne asked, his usually pointed hair practically draped around his head as he climbed down a fire escape to join them.

"The kid?" Angel asked.

"Back with Mom and with full access to the Brethrens' old accounts; they won't be suffering financially any time soon," the Pylean grinned. "Anything else we need to worry about?"

The sound of a loud roar distracted them for a moment, prompting the five of them to turn around and watch as a vast army of demons appeared at the other end of the alley, all wearing some form of armour, along with a few figures that were far larger than the standard adversary Angel had faced since arriving in Los Angeles.

"Either way, we'll go out with a bang, right?" Lorne said, chuckling apprehensively as he tightened his grip on the short sword he'd taken just in case he needed it.

"OK," Gunn said, glaring at the approaching army as he got back to his feet, "you take the thirty thousand on the right…"

"You are fading," Illyria noted, as the five of them stood before the approaching army. "You will last ten minutes at best."

"Then let's make 'em memorable," Gunn said firmly.

"Just hold on for those minutes," Angel said, looking firmly back at his friend as he quickly thought about this new information; assuming that Illyria's estimate was correct, if Gunn could keep fighting for a few minutes, that _should_ be long enough for them to make a good impression on the opposing demons before they needed to trigger their little deception…

"Do we have a plan?" Wesley asked.

"We fight."

"Can you be more specific?" Lorne asked.

"Well," Angel mused, glancing upwards at the sight of a large greenish creature flying through the air above them, "personally, I kind of want to slay the dragon."

As the demon horde began to charge towards them, Angel quickly changed his manner as he roared into battle, his sword drawn as he charged towards the army, his friends close behind him, united in a manner that he'd been missing ever since he started his twisted attempt to infiltrate the Circle.

The dragon was the priority, but until he got a good shot at that thing, he had to focus on wearing down the numbers…

Diving into the fray, a powerful swing of his sword severed the heads of the first two demons that attacked him, following the attack up by punching, kicking and stabbing his way through his adversaries. He was vaguely aware of the rest of his team gathered around him as they continued their fight, Illyria devastating her foes with powerful punches and kicks while the other three did their best with their available weapons, but it soon became clear that the best they could do was hold the line right now; they'd never be able to defeat every single demon facing them right now, no matter how hard they tried.

The real problem was how they were going to make it look natural for them all to be in one place when the detonation went off; they'd split up when making their charge so that they could do as much damage as possible, but that wouldn't help them when they had to escape. Vaulting into the air, Angel kicked out at the immediately surrounding demons as he practically jumped from one to the next, swiftly noting the locations of his remaining active allies in the battle before he hit the ground once again to take up position beside Illyria.

"We need to get ready!" he said urgently to the former Old One. "Get to the others; if we're not all together, things are going to get tricky!"

"Understood!" Illyria replied, as she launched two simultaneous punches through the chests of the nearest demons. "I will retrieve Wesley!"

"I'll find Lorne; rendezvous at Gunn!" Angel instructed, before both of them leapt back into action. Hurrying through the battlefield for a moment, Angel soon identified Lorne's position, his friend's vivid green skin standing out even amid the pouring rain and the mass of demons surrounding him. To Lorne's credit, he was putting up a fair struggle despite his usual distaste for fighting, evading the worst of the attacks and retaliating with a few quick stabs and slashes when the opportunity arose, but it was obvious that he wasn't going to last much longer if things didn't change quickly.

Not giving Lorne a chance to ask questions, Angel dived in and swung his sword at the largest of the demons gathered around his friend, clearing the battlefield long enough for him to grab Lorne's arm and run towards the scent of human blood, distinctive as the only trace of it in this entire alley. As he ran up to his friend, he was relieved to see that Illyria and Wesley were already present. Wesley was holding his side with one hand even as he continued lashing out with the sword in his other hand, and Gunn looked like he was fighting just to remain standing, but Illyria remained standing as she lashed out at her adversaries, bare fists striking with a force beyond anything he'd witnessed before.

"It's time!" Angel yelled, glancing up as he saw the dragon diving towards them, mouth glowing in a manner that almost certainly indicated that it was about to breath fire; they were never going to have a better shot at escape than this, so it was time to take it. Reaching into his pocket, Angel pulled out his emergency signal device, glancing back at his friends to confirm that they were following his example before all five of them pressed the buttons at once. Instantly, they were surrounded by a white light just as flame erupted from the dragon's mouth…

* * *

  
As soon as they had reappeared on the spaceship Angel had been shown earlier, Gunn seemed to take it as his cue to fall over, Angel and Wesley only just managing to catch him before he hit the floor.

"The bomb?" Angel asked, looking anxiously at Spike and his friends as they stood at various control panels around them.

“A small-scale incendiary device was sent back at the same time we beamed you out, and we grabbed most of the demons and other monsters there at the same time,” Colonel Mitchell explained. “Getting everything else out was tough, but it’s easier when we don’t have to worry about putting them back together at this end; we can just let the data go wherever.”

“And the bomb?” Wesley asked.

“Our explosives guys calculated that it’d be powerful enough to damage any organic thing that might be left in that alley, but not powerful enough to do anything more than blacken any buildings in the blast radius; there’ll be some property damage, but shouldn’t be any civilian casualties, and it adds to the illusion that something destroyed you all as well as their own side.”

“Particularly since we were fighting in a fairly quiet part of town without any witnesses anyway; nice choice,” Angel said, smiling in approval at the chosen weapon before he looked more urgently around the bridge while moving over to help Wesley keep Gunn up. “Sorry, but we need to get Gunn to the infirmary; he look a lot of damage from Bruckner’s vampires even before he got to the alley...”

"Literal blood-suckers trying to get into Washington, huh?" Mitchell noted with a smile, as he walked over to take Angel's place holding Gunn steady. "You'll have to tell us about that later on."

"Happy to…" Gunn muttered, his voice trailing off as the other two men led him out of the infirmary, their pace brisk and prompt without being so quick that it would jar anything inside him.

"Don't do things by half, do you?" Spike put in, walking over to grin at Angel as he clapped a hand on his grandsire's shoulder. "Taking on that many demons at once either needs serious balls or a seriously stupid son of a bitch, and whatever I might have said in the past, you aren't _that_ thick."

"Thanks… I think," Angel said, nodding at Spike out of a lack of anything else to do.

"Well," Sam said, smiling around at the remaining members of Angel Investigations, "in the meantime, if we're on our way to Atlantis, while Mr Gunn recovers in the medical bay, I'm sure you'll want to see Miss Burkle as well?"

"The shell truly lives?" Illyria asked.

"Fred's OK?" Lorne said, looking anxiously at the colonel.

"She'll be fine," Sam nodded reassuringly at the green-skinned demon, before her gaze shifted to Illyria with narrowed eyes. "And on that topic, I appreciate that you were fighting for our side right now, but if you try going after Miss Burkle to 'finish what you started'…"

"I have no intention of harming Winifred Burkle," Illyria said solemnly. "I bore her no individual malice when I took this shell, and I suffer from no belief that eliminating her will in some way improve my own position; I am content with what I have become, and shall leave it at that."

"Uh… good," Sam said, out of a lack of anything else that could be said to a statement like that.

"By the way," Daniel asked, stepping forward to look curiously at Illyria, "as long as we're in transit anyway, I was wondering… what could you tell me about the world back then?"

"Excuse me?" Illyria asked, looking at the archaeologist in surprise, before her eyes narrowed as she studied him. "You have the essence of the Ascended Ones on you…"

"You can see that?" Sam asked, looking at the blue woman in surprise.

"I can see many things," Illyria said, still looking contemplatively at Daniel before she replied to his question. "If you were perceived as worthy by them… there may be something in you worth observing."

"Uh… thanks," Daniel said, looking uncertainly at her for a moment before he indicated the door leading to the main body of the ship. "So… can we talk?"

As Illyria walked off with Daniel, Spike exchanged a brief glance with Angel before moving after the archaeologist. Angel didn't think that Illyria was going to do anything to the other man, and given her ego she'd probably appreciate the chance to talk about what life on Earth had been like during her reign, but it would probably be a good idea for Spike to keep an eye on them just in case.

Turning to look at the window before him, Angel smiled wistfully at the sight of Earth as the ship turned around and began to head for deep space, taking him and his team away from the planet that they'd spent the better part of the last three years defending (They had been working together in variations of their current state since Fred was rescued from Pylea, so _they_ had been working together for that time).

He probably wouldn't see Connor again any time soon, but that was the only real tie to life back on Earth that he would actively miss; considering the Scooby Gang's expressed opinion of his role at Wolfram & Hart, he didn't have much faith that he would be able to provide an explanation that they'd accept for his recent actions even if he was still on Earth.

As it stood, everything had worked out as well as could be expected; the Circle had been destroyed, everyone was alive, and the Senior Partners would probably assume that the dragon had vaporized them just as someone managed to do something to make it blow up at the same time.

To paraphrase Rodenberry, it was time to boldly go where no vampire had gone before…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there we have it; the end of this story, and the end of this series for the foreseeable future.
> 
> I apologise to anyone who wanted to see more of Angel and his team in Atlantis, but I have other things I want to focus on right now, so this just felt like the best place to stop for the moment.


End file.
